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FEENCH HISTOEY
FOR
ENGLISH CHILDEEN
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FKENCH HISTOEY
FOR
ENGLISH CHILDEEN
BY
SARAH BROOK
4 w
w « •»
I • «
<*
WITH' COLOURED MAPS
l^ontion
MACMILLAN AND CO,
1881
E.e.
1
- < * *" „ • •
• ■ "•
• >•
--"••••• J* l"' ''
^ , ^ ^-- - - - "
« -*
TO l^EV/ YO'VrC
?UBUC LIBRARY
* • •
• * ri
f •.
PrinUdby'B., & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
09
) O^
TO LAWRENCE
WHO WAS BORN
THE SAME WEEK THAT THIS BOOK WAS BEGUN
IT IS DEDICATED
AT PRESENT WITHOUT PERMISSION
BY THE AUTHOR
1881
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAOE
Ancient Gaul 1
CHAPTER II.
C^SAR IN Gaul (b.c. 58-51) 6
CHAPTER III.
Gaul a Roman Province (b.c. 70-250 a.d.) . . 12
CHAPTER IV.
Conquest of Gaul by the Franks (300 a.d.) 15
CHAPTER V.
The Merovingian Kings (481-687) . . . 19
CHAPTER VI.
The Mayors op the Palace (687-741) . 26
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIL
The Carlovingians (741-768) 32
PAGE
CHAPTEE VIII.
Charlemagne (771-814) 37
CHAPTER IX.
Descendants of Charlemagne (814-843) ... 44
CHAPTER X.
The Last Carlovingian Kings (843-987) . . . 43
CHAPTER XL
Hugh Capet — Robert (987-1031) .... 55
CHAPTER XIL
Henry L (1031-1060) 61
r
CHAPTER XIII.
Philip I. (1060-1 108) 68
CHAPTER XrV.
Louis VL (1108-1137) 77
CONTENTS. ix
CHAPTER XV.
PAGE
Louis VIL (1137-1180) 82
aHAPTER XVI.
Philip II. (1180-1223). . . . . . . 91
CHAPTEE XVII.
Philip XL — {wiUimied). 1180-1223 .... 100
CHAPTER XVIII.
Louis VIII. (1223-1226) 109
CHAPTER XIX.
LoDis IX. (1226-1270) 112
CHAPTER XX.
Philip III. (1270-1286) 123
CHAPTER XXI.
Philip FV. (1286-1314) 130
CHAPTER XXII.
Loots X. (1314-1316) 139
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXIII.
PAGE
Philip V. (1316-1322) 144
CHAPTER XXIV.
Charles IV. (1322-1328) ...... 149
CHAPTER XXV.
ft
Philip VI. (1328-1350) .153
CHAPTER XXVI.
John (1340-1356) 164
CHAPTER XXVII.
Charles V. (1364-1380) 176
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Charles VI. (1380-1422) 183
r
CHAPTER XXIX.
Charles VI. — {cordinued). 1392-1422 .... 191
CHAPTER XXX.
Charles VII. (1422-1461) .199
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER XXXI.
PAGE
Louis XI. (1461-1483) . . . . ... 213
CHAPTER XXXII.
Charles VIII. (1483-1498) .223
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Louis XIL (1498-1515) . . .... 230
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Francis L (1515-1547) ...... 236
CHAPTER XXXV.
Feancis I. — {contitmed). 1515-1547 .... 246
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Hbnbt II, (1547-1559) 254
CHAPTER XXXVIL
Francis IL (1559-1660) ...... 263
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Charles IX. (1560-1574) ...... 271
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
PAGE
Henry m. (1574-1589) . . . . .284
CHAPTER XL.
Henry IV. (1589-1610) 296
CHAPTER XLI.
Henry IV. — (continued). 1598-1610 .... 305
CHAPTER XLII.
Louis XIIL (1610-1643) . . ... 316
• CHAPTER XLHL
Louis XIV. (1643-1715) 329
CHAPTER XLIV.
Louis XIV. — (continued). 1643-1715 .... 340
CHAPTER XLV.
Louis XIV. — (cmcluded). 1643-1715 .... 350
CHAPTER XLVL
Louis XV. (1715-1774) 362
CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER XLVII.
PAGE
Louis XVL (1774-1792) 375
CHAPTER XLVIIL
The Revolution (1789-1792) 391
CHAPTER XLIX.
The Revolution (1792-1795) 408
CHAPTER L.
Directory AND Consulate (1795-1800) . . . 420
CHAPTER LI.
The Emperor Napoleon (1804-1815) .... 434
CONCLUSION.
Conclusion (1815-1880) 446
LIST OF MAPS.
I.
Gallia. ....... To face page 1
II.
The Empibe of the Franks in 507 . . „ 19
III.
The Empire of Chableuaqne . . . „ 47
IV.
France in the Eleventh Century . . „ 61
V.
France in the Thirteenth Century . . . „ 101
VI.
France in 1328-1461 „ 153
VII.
France, 1589-1610 „ 297
VIII.
France, 1643-1715 . , 329
IX.
Europe, 1811 „ 435
,i
^^,r'J^n^
VI «m' ■111" •■ ^
■ ■ !■■ I BP ,
FRENCH HISTORY
FOR
ENGLISH CHILDEEN.
GHAPTEE I..
Ancient Gaul.
The country which we now call France was not always
called so, nor were the people who live in it always called
the French. When it is first mentioned, which is in old
Latin books written more than 1800 years ago, it is called
Gallia, or Gaul, and the people are spoken of as Gauls.
Gaul was in some respects the same as France is now,
and in some respects very different. It was the same, or
chief towns ; it was different in its roads, fields, villages,
and more than all, in the people who lived in it. When I
say that all the towns were the same, I do not mean that
they look the same now as they did then, but that the
Gauls had towns in many of the places where the French
now have them, and that they have lasted with almost the
same names ever since.
If you look at the map you will see that France is a
country about three times as big as England ; it has the
B
2 ANCIENT GA UL. [CH.
sea on two sides of it, the north and the west ; on the
south are first a range of mountains called the Pyrenees,
separating it from Spain, and farther along another sea
called the Mediterranean ; on the east some more moun-
tains caUed the Alps, Germany, and Belgium. Some way
to the east of the eastern boundary you will see a river
called the Ehine flowing from the south to the north, and
ending in the German Ocean. Many of the rulers of.
France have wished and done their best to conquer the
countries between France and the Ehine, but in this they
have never succeeded.
There are in France four great rivers, and many
smaller ones ; they now flow through great cities and
well -cultivated fields, often bearing steamboats and
baiges, and supplying water to hundreds of villages,
mills, and factories. In the time of the old Gauls
they flowed through immense forests, which covered a
great part of the country, and through swamps where no
one lived but elks, beavers, and great wild bulls, larger
and fiercer than any that are now to be seen. The Gkuls
themselves were wild and fierce; they knew very little,
except about hunting and taking care of the flocks ; they
had no clothes, but painted their bodies, and pricked
patterns on then- skins, which is called tattoomg, and which
they thought a great ornament. Sometimes hatchets an^
knives of 8tone which belonged to the old Gauls are found
buried in the ground in France, or arrows pointed witli
sharp stones, or spears to hunt the boar, or long narrowl
shields, which they used in war, or some of their small boats \
made of willow and covered with the skin of some beast, i
usually of an ox, like the coracles of the old Britons, of I
I.] ANCIENT GA UJL
which you have read. Gaul was in those days a colder
country than France now is ; the winds were more violent,
and the rivers were often covered with ice.
By degrees the Gauls began to find out that their
country was fertile; that is, that whatever seed they
sowed in the ground would grow up quickly and bear
good fruit, and some of them began to make it their
business to sow seed, and cut down the grain when it
grew up, and to work in the fields as our farmers do, so
that the people might have something else to eat besides
the animals that the hunters brought home. The Gauls
invented ploughs and sieves, and other useful instruments.
As time went on, they found that besides being fertile,
their country was rich in metals; they dug mines and
found copper, iron, lead, and even silver and gold. Ships
came to Gaul from other countries, and brought useful
and beautiful objects of aU kinds, which they gave to the
Gnuls in return for some of the metal out of the mines.
The Gauls grew rich, and spent their riches in making
themselves more comfortable in many ways. Their food
at this time was chiefly pork and ham, and they kept
great flocks of pigs in their forests and meadows ; they
drank a sort of beer made of barley. In some parts
of Gaul they had begun to grow the vine, which we find
now all over the south of France, and from which the
French get grapes to make their wine.
The Gfiuls began to wear clothes and ornaments ; rings
and bracelets of gold or other metal, and they built them-
selves houses of earth and wood, covered with straw or
thatch. They made walls round their villages of beams of
wood and blocks of stone, to protect them from their
ANCIENT GA UL. [CH.
enemies, for they were still very much in the habit of
going to war with one another, and they had other
enemies besides, as we shall see.
The Gauls, like the old Britons, were heathens, and
believed in many gods, who lived, as they thought, in the
earth, the forests, the rocks, and the rivers. Their priests
were called Druids, and were old and wise men, who had
studied often for twenty years before they were considered
wise enough to become "Men of the Oak," which was the
name of the chief Druids;
The Druids taught the young men, and gave them
lessons in aU kinds of natural history ; and they held a
great meeting every year, at which they settled any ques-
tion or dispute that might be brought for them to decide,
and sometimes they made laws for the country. But
their chief business was to worship their gods, and teach
the people how to worship them. Once every year the
Druids went out to look for mistletoe, which they believed
to be a sacred plant, and they thought it specially valuable
when it grew upon the oak, which they considered the
finest of trees. When the mistletoe was found upon an
oak, the people came from all parts of the country and
stood round the tree, while a Druid, dressed in white,
climbed up with a golden sickle, and cut off the mistletoe,
which the other Druids caught in a white cloth, and carried
away as a precious treasure. They thought that gathering
this mistletoe was pleasing to their gods, for the Gauls did
not know of the one God in whom we believe, and who
cares only that people should do right, and not that they
should gather plants, however precious and rare, in His
honour. But the Druids did worse than this, for they
I.] ANCIENT GA UL.
thought it was pleasing to their gods to kill men — ^usually
prisoners taken in battle — ^at their altars. They also be-
lieved that by killing one man they might persuade the
gods to spare the life of another who might be ill or in
danger. There were female Druids, called Druidesses,
who usually lived by the sea-shore in some wild, lonely
place, and were often to be seen by night waving torches
and singing wild songs in the darkness. The people sup-
posed them to have the power of raising or quieting the
winds and waves by their song.
C^SAR IN GA UL. [CH.
CHAPTER 11.
CiESAB IN Gaxtl (b.g. 58-51).
I SAID that the first books in which the Gauls are spoken
of are Latin books. Latin was the language of the Bomans,
the most powerful nation that has ever existed. The people
of Eome began by conquering the cities near them, tiU they
were masters of all Italy, and they then made war upon
the countries round Italy, amongst others, upon Graul. The
Romans were wiser than the Grauls, and had better arms
and better generals, and knew how to make roads from one
place to another, and bridges across any rivers that might
be in their way; and they were soon masters of part of the
south of France, where they built cities and settled them-
selves. Some of the Gauls had fought against the Romans,
and tried to prevent them from coining into the country,
and these people the Romans treated harshly, making them
obey the Roman governors and pay them great sums of
money. Other Gauls had yielded to the Romans at once,
and they were allowed to remain free, promising to help
the Romans whenever they went to war.
Julius Caesar was a great Roman general, who was sent
by the consuls or chief rulers of Rome to govern the part
of Gaul which had already been conquered, and to conquer
the people of some of the farther part, who seemed inclined
to rise up against the Romans. He had a great deal of
II.] C^SAR IN GAUL,
hard fighting for eight years, for the Gauls resisted him
very bravely ; and it often happened that in some part of
the country which he had just conquered, and where he
thought the people would remain faithful to their promises
to him, they would rise up against him as soon as his back
was turned, and all his work would have to' be done over
again. Caesar, in his accounts of these wars, often speaks
of the Gauls as faithless and changeable, ready to believe
the first person who spoke to them, especially any one who
told them they were ill-treated, and advised them to rise
up against the Bomans.
The Gauls sometimes asked for help from the Germans
who lived on the other side of the Khine, who were far
more savage and wild than the Gauls had now become, and
who liked fighting better than any other employment ; so
much so, that after helping the Gauls against the Eomans,
they would sometimes themselves turn against the Gauls,
and take some of their land &om them. Thus Caesar had
often Gauls and Germans fighting together against him,
but he was so wise and brave a general, and his soldiers
obeyed him so well and showed such patience and courage,
that all Gaul was at last conquered by the Eomans, and
was improved by them in many ways.
I will now give an account of the siege of Alesia, that
you may have some idea of the way in which the Gauls
and Romans fought. I must first say that the people of
Gaul were divided into tribes or separate bodies, living
each iQ a special part of the country, and each tribe under
chiefs or principal men of its own. Some tribes were much
larger than others ; some of the larger had more than two
hundred thousand members, while others had only a few
8 CJSSAR IN GA UL. [CH.
hundred. The part of the country where each tribe lived
was called after the name of the tribe, so that Guul was
broken up into divisions something like the English coun-
ties, but with the difference that they had no one ruler
over them like our Queen, nor government of any kind like
our Houses of Parliament. Each tribe managed its own
affairs for itself, and they often made war upon one another.
It is clear that a country would not be likely to grow rich
or strong while its people were fighting among themselves.
If the men of Middlesex had a war with the men of Kent,
no ships from London would be able to go down the
Thames, and if there were a chance of such a war, it is not
likely that we should have built ships which might so
easily be taken from us by enemies. Eailroads, too, would
never have been made over aU England if the different
counties were in the habit of going to war with each other.
One of the great improvements that Caesar made in Gaul,
was to force the different tribes to live in peace. This gave
them time to attend to working in their fields, improving
their towns, and other peaceful and useful occupations.
In course of time the different tribes became friendly, and
their country was divided into provinces, which were after-
wards formed into a kingdom with one king over them. ^
The siege of Alesia, which I am going to describe, hap-
pened towards the end of Caesar's wars in Gaul. All the
Gaulish tribes had joined together to try and drive him
out of the country, and at their head they had a brave
leader named Vercingetorix, meaning General -in -chief.
After having been defeated by Caesar in several battles,
and lost mly great cities, Vercingetorix led his arm;
to a town called Alesia, and set up his camp there. The
II.] CjESAR in GAUL. 9
town was on the top of a hill, with other hills round
it, a plain in front, and a river flowing on each side.
Caesar brought his army to the foot of the hill, and began
to dig a deep ditch, called a trench, to protect his men from
any sudden attack of the Grauls. When Vercingetorix
saw that Caesar meant to shut him and his army up in
Alesia, and to oblige them to yield to him by not allow-
ing any food to come in to them, he sent away a body
of his soldiers to try and collect food for him in their
own countries, and to make their way back with it
through the army of the enemy. He kept with him
eighty thousand of his best soldiers to help him to resist
Caesar.
Caesar built towers and a wall behind the trench ; be-
hind these again two other trenches, then another wall
with stakes like stags' horns sticking out from it to prevent
the enemy from climbing up it, and with turrets all along
the top. He made another small trench, at the bottom of
which he stuck very sharp stakes hidden by branches of
teees, so that whoever got down into it should be run into
by the stakes. These works went the whole way round
the foot of the liill on which Alesia stood, a distance of
eleVen miles. The men in Alesia finding that Caesar had
made aU these preparations against them, and that their
friends did not come back to bring them food, held a
council, in which one of their chief men made a speech,
proposing that all the old, weak, and useless people iii the
town should be put to death, and eaten by the others.
Many of the Gauls said that this cruel plan was too hor-
rible, and refused to listen to it It was at last settled
that j^hese old and weak people should be sent away from
10 C^SAR IN GAUL, [CH.
the Gaulish camp, and try to make their way past the
Eomans and out into the country beyond; but Caesar would
not let them pass him, s^nd they had to go back into the
town.
In the meantime, the Gauls who had been sent away
to fetch food, csime back with a store,, spd tried to make
their way into the town, but the Bomans came out to
fight them, and drove them away. The Gauls in Alesia
came out jfrom the toivn shouting, to encourage their
friends, but when they saw theih drawing back before the
Bomans, they returned, disappointed, into the town, A
few days later, the Gauls ^made a fierce attack on the
Boman camp, but in vain ; they went from one part to
another, throwing earth into the trenches so that they
might pass safely even over those with stakes at the
bottom, but everywhere they met the Boman soldiers,
and Csesar stood on a high hiU to watch his men, and
send help to any of them who seemed to be in difficulty.
At last, seeing that his soldiers were beginning to yield,
he rushed down himself into the battle. The Bomans
gave a shout, threw away the darts or javelins with
which they had been fighting, drew their swords, and
followed Csesar ; some of the horse soldiers went round
to surprise the Gauls at the back. The Gauls turned and
fled. Caesar went on to the gates of the city, which was
the next day given up to him.
Vercingetorix assembled his soldiers in the town, and
told them that he was ready to give himself up to Csesar
if they wished it, or that, if they chose, they might kill
him, as he thought that if he were dead, or Caesar's
prisoner, Caesar might be willing to spare the lives of his
II.] CjESAR in GAUL. 11
soldiers. The Gauls settled that he should be given up to
Caesar with th^ other chiefs.
Caesar sat at, the h^d of his soldiers, and aU the
Gaijlish chieftains in turns were brought before him, and
laid down their arms. Csesar took io Eome the general
Vercingetorix, who was afterwards put to death in prison;
he gd.ve to each Eoman soldier one Graul for a slave, as a
reward for their victory.
12 GA UL A ROMAN PRO VINCE, [CH.
CHAPTER III.
Gaul a Roman Pbovincb (b.c. 70-250 a.d.)
When Caesar was made Consul, or chief ruler in Eome,
he had no more time to attend to the Gauls ; but many of
the Eomans stayed in Gaul, and built or conquered cities
there, and lived under Eoman laws. They taught the
Ga^ who lived near them to talk the^* own language,
Latin ; and most of the words which the French use now
are so much like Latin that a person knowing one of these
languages finds it a great help in understanding the other.
The Gauls improved in many ways; they learned to dress
like the Bomans, to build their houses of stone and marble
instead of wood and earth, a^d to make roads through
their thick forests, so that it might be easy to go from one
part of the country to another. Many schools and colleges
were set up, and the Gauls learned to read Latin, and also
studied law and science, and whatever else the Romans
would teach them. Many Gauls changed their old names
and took Boman ones. ,
When the Gauls b^an going , to the Eoman colleges,
and reading Latin booksi they left off caring to be taught
by the Druids, for the Druids had no books, but learned
everything by heart, and knew much less than the Eomans.
By degrees the people left off believing in the Druids and
their old gods altogether, and determined to worship the
III.] GAUL A ROMAN PROVINCE. 13
same gods as the Eomans; the Eoman priests took for
themselves the riches of the Druids, and the Druids hid
themselves in wild parts of the coimtry, and were at last
forgotten by the people. In some parts of Englajid and
Ireland and France, we still see the circles of stones, or
the curious piles of four stones, called cromlechs or
dolmens, three stones standing round, and one lying on
the top, which mark the places where the Druids sacrificed
in old days.
The Grauls lived thus peacefully for about three hun-
dred years ; they came to be considered as Eoman subjects,
and the Eomans helped them whenever they were attacked
by any of the fierce German tribes who lived on the other
side of the Ehine. These tribes were, as I said before,
very wild and ignorant, loving nothing so well as war, and
apt sometimes to come into Gaul and carry off anything
they could find, food or goods or treasures, from the people.
The most important thing that happened to the Gauls dur-
ing this time was that many of them became Christians.
Men came from Italy to teach them about the one God in
whom we now believe, and many, both of the Eomans and
the Gauls, listened to them, believed what they said, and
left off praying to idols and sacrificmg to their gods. The
otl^er Gauls were at first angry at this change, drove the
Christians out of the towns, and put some of them to
death; but by degrees more and more of them began to
believe the new teaching, till at last aU the country be-
came Chmtian. ^
Each city had a bishop, the old Eoman temples were
turned into churches, and figures of the Apostles were set
up instead of the statues of the old Eoman emperors. By
14 GAUL A ROMAN PROVINCE. [CH.
this time every one had left off speaking the Gallic lan-
guage, and the Ganls used a kind of bad Latin, which at
last became French, a good deal like what is now spoken
in France. The Gauls, during aU these years, seemed to
be growing more and more wise and happy, and to be
improving in every way ; but the people were reaUy not
happy, for the Romans expected them to pay great sums
of money, which were spent, not in Gaul, but in Rome, for
the Roman emperor to pay his army, or use in whatever
way he chose. The Gauls knew that it would be of no
use to refuse to pay the money, for the Romans were
stronger than they ; but when they paid it they had very
little left for themselves, and this made them dislike the
Romans, who were themselves growing poorer and weaker,
and less brave and wise, every year. Another reason for
the unhappiness of the Gauls was that a great number of
them were slaves, and were very badly treated by their
masters, who often went away to amuse themselves at Rome
or other great towns, leaving the poor slaves, with very little
food and bad houses to live in, to work on their lands and
make money for them to spend when they came back.
IV.] CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE FRANKS, 15
CHAPTER IV.
Conquest of Gaul by the Franks (300 aj>.)
I SAID that the Eomans were growing weaker and less
wise than they had been ; the fierce tribes of Germany, on
the other hand, were growing stronger and more powerfuL
Many of them left their own country, which was not so
pleasant as Gaul or Italy, because the people had not
taken any pains to improve it, and it was stiU covered
with thick forests and swamps, and had no good roads or
corn-fields, or orchards, and was altogether dreary and
poor; so the German tribes came in great numbers, some
into Gaul and some into Italy. The Eoman emperors sent
soldiers, and sometimes went themselves, to help the Gauls
to resist these enemies, but in vain ; there were so many
of them, that as soon as one army had been defeated,
another appeared. At one time Eome itself was taken by
the Germans, and though they were afraid to stay there
long, they did a great deal of harm, for they stole or
destroyed most of what they found.
Many of the Germans had passed through Gaul on
their way to Eome, and had destroyed the harvests, the
trees, and the flocks, besides taking the people for slaves.
A writer of that time says : — " Neither strong places
surrounded by water, nor castles built upon steep rocks,
could escape their furious attacks and cunning stratagems.
16 CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE FRANKS. [cH.
If the whole ocean had flowed over the Gaulish lands, the
ruin of Gaul would have been less complete." After
nearly a hundred years of this trouble and disturbance,
one of the Boman emperors made an agreement with the
King of the Goths, one of the German nations, that he
would give up to the Goths a third part of Guul, keeping
for Eome only one province in the south, which was nearer
to Italy, and could be more easily defended than the others.
The Gauls were in despair. After fighting against
the Germans for more than sixty years, and bearing
bravdy all kinds of want and suffering, they were to be-
come the subjects and probably the slaves of their fierce
enemies. They wrote in vain to the emperor, begging not
to be delivered up to the Goths; they then turned for
help to the Greek emperor, who also refused to hear them ;
they were at last forced to yield to the Goths. Two other
German tribes had also made themselves masters of a part
of Gaul ; of these the fiercest and most savage was that of
the Franks, who, for some reason, were better liked by the
Gauls, especially by the Gaulish bishops, than the Goths
or any other Germans.
The King of the Franks died and left his crown to his
young son Clovis, who showed himself, as he grew up, to
be a wise and brave prince. He first attacked and con-
quered the Roman chief who was governing the part of
the country which had been kept by Eome. Clovis took
from him several provinces, which was the name given to
divisions of the country like our English counties. He
afterwards made war against a fierce tribe of Germans who
were trjdng to force their way into Gaul and settle there,
as the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks had done.
IV.] CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE FRANKS, 17
Clovis at this time was, like the other Franks, a heathen,
but his wife was a Christian, and had often tried to per-
suade him to be the same. In a great battle against the
Germans the Franks seemed likely to be defeated. Clovis
called for help upon the God of his wife, and swore that if
he conquered in this battle, he would become a Christian.
The Franks were victorious, and Clovis was baptized with
all his chief warriors. After this the Gaulish clergy took
the side of the Franks more than ever ; the Goths were also
Christians, but they believed some things which the clergy
thought were untrue, while the Franks believed just what
the Romans taught them.
Clovis, however, though he was a Christian, was still
horribly fierce and cruel. He killed many of his relations
and the other princes of his tribe, so that there might be
no one to try to become king instead of him. He conquered
all the land of the Burgundians, and a great part of what
belonged to the Goths, so that he became king of ahnost
aU the whole of GauL The Franks settled themselves
comfortably in the country, and more and more Franks from
Germany were constantly passing into Gaul and establish-
ing themselves there.
The Franks, like most barbarous people, had a great
dislike to living in towns ; the king, when he was not at
war, went from one part of the country to another, huntiag
and amusing himself, and his chief warriors followed him.
He gave them land for their own to reward their services
to him. This land they kept for their lifetime, and some-
times left it to their sons, for the chiefs often grew as
powerful as the king, so that when he wished to take back
the land he was not able to do so.
18 CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE FRANKS. [CH
Sometimes in war the chiefs took land for themselves,
and gave parts of it to their followers without the king
having ai^iihing to do with it. You see that it was very
dififerent being king of the Franks from being king of any
of the countries of Europe at the present day. If an
Englishman conquers land now, it belongs to the Queen ;
if a Frenchman conquers it, to the French Eepublic ; if a
Grerman, to the Emperor of Germany. But the king in
those days was not much more than the general of his
tribe, having very little power over them in times of peace,
and he was obliged to allow the chiefs to keep the land
they had won, because - he could not prevent them from
doing so.
"We do not know much of the state of the Gkiuls at this
time. Probably they were rather better off at first under
the Franks than they had been under the Eomans, because
the Franks were not accustomed to have slaves, and did
not expect such large sums of money from the Gauls as
the Eomans had done ; but the country soon fell into aU
lands of disturbance and confusion, and the Gktuls were
worse off than they had ever been before.
"I
» ■« 'v J * '. -" 1
i 1
^1*1
J
v.] THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS. 19
CHAPTEE V.
The MEROvmaiAN Kings (481-687). .
When Clovis died he left four sons. It was a custom
among the Franks that the sons of a king should divide
among themselves the coimtry that their father had
governed. In most of the coimtries of Europe, at the pre-
sent time, the eldest son becomes king of the whole king-
dom on the death of his father, and the younger sons are
made Dukes, and have money given to them, but no part
of the country to govern, which is a much better plan, for
when there are different rulers of equal power in the same
country, they are almost sure to go to war with each other,
and no country can be prosperous while one part of its
people is fighting against another part. The sons of Clovis
divided their father's kingdom into four parts, and drew
lots to settle which division should belong to each of them.
One had Paris and the country round, and was called
King of Paris, another was King of Orleans, a third King
of Soissons, and the fourth, who reigned over that part of
Gktul which was nearest to Germany and to the river
Ehine, was King of Metz. The Franks then began to
attack the wild neighbours who lived to the south and east
of them, and they were usually successful in their wars.
In a battle against the Burgundians the King of Orleans
20 THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS, [ch.
was killed. He left three sons, still children, who were
under the care of their grandmother.
Their uncles, the Kings of Paris and of Soissons, seized
the children and carried them away. They then sent to
the grandmother a pair of scissors and a sword, with a
message, saying, " "We await thy wishes as to the three
children ; shall they be slain or shorn ? " that is, shall they
be kiUed, or shall they have their hair cut off, and be
turned into monks — men who live shut up from every one
in a building called a monastery, and do nothing but pray
and sing hymns, and never come out into the world again.
When the poor old grandmother got this message, " Shall
they be slain or shorn ? " she was in such despair at the idea
of the children being shut up all their lives in a monastery,
that she cried out, " Slain rather than shorn." When the
cruel uncles heard this, they seized up in their arms first
the eldest boy and then the second, and kiUed them by
dashing them against the floor, but some one who was
standing near caught up the third boy, carried him out,
and escaped with him. The child was put into a monas-
tery, and lived and died a monk. After his death he was
worshipped as a saint, and St. Cloud, a village near Paris,
where many of the French kings have lived, was named
after him.
The lands of the King of Orleans were divided between
the Kings of Soissons and of Paris, and when the King of
Paris died soon after, the King of Soissons became ruler of
the whole.
The King of Metz meanwhile had died, and left his
kingdom to his son, a brave prince, who made many expe-
ditions against the Germans, and tried to govern wisely
v.] THE MERO VINGIAN KINGS, 21
with the help of a Gaulish friend, who taught him much
that he himseK had learned from the Eomans. The King
of Soissons at last seized his land also, and so became the
only king of the Franks. He died soon after, saying, " Oh !
how great must be the King of Heaven, if He can thus
kill so mighty a king as I."
I have not mentioned the names of the four sons of
Glovis, because they are long, hard, and so much like one
another, that it is confusing to try to remember them ; and
as they lived so long ago, and we know so little about
them, their names are not very important to us. It is
more useful to know the names of their chief cities, as that
gives us some idea as to what part of the coimtry that is
now France belonged to the Franks at the time of which I
am writing.
Paris, Orleans, Soissons, and Metz, the four towns after
which these four kings were called, are aU near together,
and all in the same part of France. If the whole of France
were divided into three horizontal strips, that is, strips
running from east to west — Paris, Soissons, and Metz would
all be in the topmost or most northern strip, and Orleans
close to the top of the next strip. This northern part of
the country, where the Franks had settled, was called after
them, Francia, and all the country that the Franks con-
quered was also called Francia, till at last that name
belonged to all that had been Gaul, and it was but a small
change to pronounce Francia as we now do France.
The King of Soissons died, and, like his father, left
four sons. One became King of Paris, another King of
Soissons, another King of Burgundy, and the fourth, who
governed the same country that had before belonged to the
22 THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS. [CH.
King of Metz, was now called King of Austrasia, a word
meamng east kingdom. Buigundy waa a country which
had been conquered by the last king of Orleans ; it was
south of Francia, and on the east side of France.
The King of Paris died, and the King of Soissons, whose
name was Hilperik, seized upon his lands, joined them to
his own, and called the whole Neustria, or west kingdom.
Frankish Gaul was now divided into three parts, Neustria,
Austrasia, and Burgundy. Neustria was the country which
is now the north of France ; the country which was Aus-
trasia is now part of it the north-east comer of France ;
part of it Belgium, and part of it the western side of Ger-
many. The Neustrians and Australians were usually at
war with each other ; the Burgundians took the side some-
times of one, sometimes of the other.
The kings of Neustria and of Austrasia had each the
misfortune, or the folly, to , have a horribly wicked wife ;
they are almost the worst women of whom we ever hear.
The Queen of Neustria was called Fredegond, the Queen
of Austrasia Brunehild, and it would he hard to say which
of the two was the worse. Fredegond was at first the slave
of the King of Neustria, who had a young and amiable
wife ; Fredegond murdered the wife, and persuaded Hil-
perik the king to marry her instead. The king was a weak
and bad man ; having married her, he let her do all the
bad things she chose, and sometimes helped her in them.
She had two of her stepsons murdered ; she murdered a
bishop who had displeased her; she murdered the King of
Austrasia, who had conquered her husband in battle, and
had just been declared King of Neustria, as well as of
Austrasia ; at last she murdered her husband.
V.]. THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS. 23
She then governed, and governed well, the kingdom of
Neustria for her son, who was still a child, and when she
died she left him firmly settled on the throne. Brunehild,
Queen of Anstrasia, was a bitter enemy of Predegond, for
which she had good reason, as the queen whom Fredegond
had murdered, in order to become queen herself, was Brune-
hild's sister. Brunehild persuaded her husband, who was
by nature a peacefal man, to make war on the Keustrian
king : he was successful, as I said before, and had just been
declared King of Neustria when two pages sent by Prede-
gond appeared before him, pretended to have business to
do with him, and whfle he was talking to them murdered
him.
Brunehild was taken prisoner, but managed to escape,
and went back to Austrasia, where she governed the
countiy for her son, who was a child like the King of
Neustria. She built churches, made roads, and was great
and prosperous, till she quarrelled with the chiefs of the
country, and murdered several of them. They rose against
her, and drove her into Burgundy. She made war upon
them, and in later years murdered her grandson with his
children because he took part against her. At last she was
taken prisoner by the Austrasians, and put to death with
great cruelty.
After the death of Brunehild, Fredegond's son became
King of all the Franks, and in Neustria every one obeyed
him ; but in Austrasia he found two sets of enemies, the
great chiefs and the bishops. The bishops had by this
time become rich and powerful ; they had a great deal of
land, for people who were dying, and had no children to
whom to leave their land, often left it to the Church, and
24 THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS. [CH.
even those who had children often thought it right to leave
to the Church some of their land or some money.
The clergy, by which I mean all the clergymen in the
country— bishops,deans, village priests,spoken of together-
had separate courts of justice. If a clergyman did anything
wrong, he was not tried like other men in the court belong-
ing to the king, or to one of the great lords of the country,
but he was tried in the court of the clergy, judged by the
clergy, and punished less severely than he would have been
if tried in the other courts. The bishops in Austrasia
thought themselves too great to obey the king in every-
thing he chose to command, so they and the great Austra-
sian chiefs joined together to resist the king if he did
anything to displease them.
The clergy had one power which the king never tried
to take from them, it was that of sheltering and protecting
people who came for safety into the churches. Any man
who was pursued by an enemy, or who wanted to escape
from any danger, might go into a sanctuary, which was
either some particular church or the chapel of some mon-
astery, or the place where some saint or good man was
buried. When a person was in a sanctuary he was safe,
no one might come in after him to take him away, and so
long as he stayed there his enemies could not get at him.
It was no matter whether he was good or bad, whether he
was trying to escape from wicked enemies, or from honest
people wishing to punish him for some harm that he had
done ; any one who had gone into the sanctuary to hurt
him there, or to drag him out of it by force, would have
done what was thought to be a most wicked deed, and
would probably have been killed by the priests on his way.
v.] THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS. 25
When any great person, such as a prince or noble, was
in sanctuary, his servants were allowed to go in and wait
upon him ; and the clergy of the place provided food and
whatever else they might want for those who were poor.
One of the people whom Fredegond tried to murder, her
own stepson, stayed in sanctuary for some time, with the
soldiers of the king, his father, watching to take him
prisoner when he should come but. He got tired of the
sanctuary at last, left it secretly, and was soon after caught
and murdered.
This power of the clergy was on the whole useful to the
country, as the Franks were still fierce and cruel, and the
strong often ill-treated the weak, and found no one to pre-
vent them. When there were no fixed laws by which it
could be settled what people might and might not do, and
very few wise judges to determine whether any particular
person had done wrong or not, it was very likely that
people would be punished unjustly, and it was a good thing
that there should be means by which innocent people
could escape, even though people who were not innocent
sometimes made use of them.
26 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. [CH.
CHAPTEE VI.
The Mayobs op the Palace (687-741).
When Clotaire, son of Fredegond, died, he left two sons.
They did not, as their uncles and great-uncles had done,
divide the land into two parts and each reign over one ;
but one of them, whose name was Dagobert, gathered to-
gether an army and made himseK mastier of both Neustria
and Austrasia. He gave to his brother land in the south
part of the country, a part which no Frankish king had
ever before even visited, so that the people felt great pride
and pleasure in having a king to themselves. Dagobert
took Paris for his chief town ; he made himself a splendid
court, took journeys through the country doing justice to
his subjects, and made presents of lands and goods to the
people whom he wished to have for friends. " His coming
struck terror into bishops and chiefs, but filled the poor
with joy," He encouraged the building of churches, and
had copies of the old Frankish laws written out and
sent about the kingdom. \
After ten years he died, leaving two sons, one eight
and the other four years old. The elder had already been
made King of Austrasia, for the Austrasians had wished
for a king to themselves, and Dagobert had sent them his
elder son ;• the younger was King of Neustria. Of course
while they were children these kings had no power, but
VI.] THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. 27
they did not gain more as they grew up. There followed
three more kings in Neustria and four in Anstrasia, none
of whom could make themselves obeyed, or were con-
sidered as of any importance in the kingdom.
In both countries the chief man next to the king was
called the Mayor of the Palace; he had the chief command
in time of war, and sometimes had to hold a court and do
justice. The Mayor df the Palace was chosen by the chiefs,
and in Austrasia always took their side against the king ;
in Keustria he usually took the side of the king against the
chiefs. As the kings' power grew less, that of the chiefs
increased; the kings came to be known as Faineant or
Do-nothing kings, and the really important person was the
Mayor of the Palace.
All the kings who had descended from Clovis were
called Merwing or Merovingian kings, from the name of
the chief family among the Frankish tribes. After the
death of Dagobert there was no other Merovingian king of
any power or importance. All the Merovingian kings had
long yellow hair which was never cut, but which fell round
their shoulders ; and when they lost all power in the State
this was their only distinction, and they used to be driven
about Paris in carriages drawn by oxen, looking very splen-
did, but despised by every one who saw them, because they
had no power and did nothing useful to any one, and so
had no right to be kings.
The Faineant kings settled nothing for themselves, but
sat on their throne and pretended to rule, answering to the
people who came to speak with them on business exactly
what they had been told beforehand to say by the Mayor
of the Palace. This went on for nearly a hundred years.
28 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. [CH.
and one particular family became more famous in Austrasia
than any other, so that the Mayor of the Palace was always
chosen from it. The men in this family were all wise,
brave, and vigorous. At the time when Dagobert's little
son became king of Austrasia, the Mayor of the Palace was
named Pepin ; and all through the reign of that king, and
of several others who came after him, Pepin had more
power in Austrasia than any one else, and both there and
in Neustria behaved as if he were himself the king. He
made war when he chose and against whom he chose,
chiefly against the Germans who lived on the other side
of the Ehine, and who were very wild and fierce, and
sometimes attacked his land.
Pepin tried to keep them quiet in two ways ; some-
times he marched against them with an army, sometimes
he sent a body of monks to try and teach them to be
Christians.
When Pepin died, his son Karl took for himself all
that had belonged to his father. The Neustrians tried to
escape from his power, but he was too strong for them,
and they were obliged to obey him as they had obeyed
Pepin.
Karl was poor, and soon saw that he would have to
carry on great wars against the enemies of the Franks.
He wanted money with which to make presents to the great
chiefs, that they might like him, and be willing to fight in
his battles. In those days there was no regular army and
no regular soldiers. When the king wanted to make war
he called upon all his chiefs to go with him. Some of the
chiefs to whom he had given land had promised in return
that they would go out and fight his battles with a certain
VL] THE MA YORS OF THE PALACE. 29
— ^ ■ ■■■■■■ ■ - ■ I — ^ — ■■■■■■ — ■■■ ■ — ■ ■ M ■» ■ ■■■ I ■» I ■ 11 ■ ■ I .^ ■ ■
number of men whenever he wished it, and sometimes
these chiefs had given part of their land to some of their
friends in return for the same promise, so that a king
could usually count upon a certain number of men when
he went to war. Others of the chiefs had taken land for
themselves, as I said before, and made no promise to any
one ; but they were usually willing to help the king, be-
cause war was a great amusement to them, and because
they were anxious to keep enemies away from their coun-
try, and because they hoped to have some share in the
goods and money which might be taken from the enemy.
But Karl was not a king, the chiefs had made no promise
to him, and it was all the more necessary for him to have
some reward to offer to the soldiers who should fight for
him.
Clovis had given land to his chiefs, but now all the
land already belonged to some one, and Karl did not dare
to take any away from the great chiefs, who would have
turned against him and become dangerous enemies. But
the bishops and clergy had great riches, and Karl thought
that they did very little to deserve them, for as they grew
rich they became selfish and idle, and did not think about
teaching the people and doing their duty, but only how to
make themselves grand and comfortable, so that no one
respected them. Karl took away from them the rich lands
that belonged to the Church, and gave them to his warriors.
Of course the clergy were very angry, and in many old
books we may read all the bad things that they say of
Karl ; but the chiefs were pleased, and the men to whom
the lands were given fought with Karl bravely against all
their enemies. They had first to fight the Saxons, a race
30 THE MA YORS OF THE PALACE, [CH.
of Gtermans who lived on the farther side of the Ehine,
some of whom had before this time gone to Britain and
established themselves there as you have read in English
histories. The Saxons were defeated, and Karl next
prepared to defend himself against the Arabs, who came
from Spain over the Pyrenees to try and make themselves
masters of France. *
The Arabs lived in Arabia, which is in Asia, on the east
side of the Bed Sea> and for many hundred years they had
been poor people, living in tribes, never leaving their coun-
try, spending their time in hunting and taking care of their
flocks, scarcely noticed at all by any other nation
A hundred and fifty years before the time of which I
am speaking, an Arabian merchant appeared among his
countrymen and taught them a religion. It was not the
Christian religion, for he was not a Christian himself, nor
was it the religion of any other nation. He taught them
his own ideas about God, and they believed that he was a ,
prophet or a man sent by God on purpose to teach them.
He believed it himself, and as his name was Mahomet,
they called the religion he taught them Mahometanism
and themselves Mahommedans, as the people who believe
what Jesus Christ taught call themselves Christians.
When they had learned what they believed to be true,
they determined to make all the rest of the world believe
it as well.
They left their own country and began to make war on
the people round. The mild ignorant shepherds had turned
into fierce soldiers ; they conquered Persia, Egypt, part of
Africa, Spain. Whenever they conquered a country, they
asked the people whether or not they would become Ma- ,-•
VI.] THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. 31
hommedans. If they said Tes, the Arabs treated them well,
gave them good governors, and ruled them kindly. If they
said No, the Mahommedans used them as slaves, made them
pay tribute, or sums of money, and sometimes put them to
death. Many of the nations conquered by the Arabs were
too much afraid of them not to pretend to agree with them
whether they really did so or not
The Arabs had in this way become masters of Spain,
and now they wished to conquer Prance ; but when they
had passed the Pyrenees and begun their m^rch against a
French town, they found Karl with his army ready to
resist them. There was a great battle between the two
armies, called the battle of Tours, and in the end Karl
conquered the Mahommedans, killed, some say, three hun*
dred thousand Arabs, and drove the rest out of France.
He has been called Karl the Hammer, or in French
Charles Martel, in memory of the blows which he gave
his enemies on this occasion.
The rest of his life he passed in fighting, sometimes
against the Saxons, sometimes against the people in the
south of France. He was called Duke of the Franks.
When he died he left his dukedom to be divided between
his two sons. .
32 THE CARLOVINGIANS. [CH.
CHAPTEE VII.
Thb Carlovingians (741-768).
I SAID that at this time the bishops and other clergy had
grown idle and selfish, and taught the people nothing.
The chief teachers of the people were the monks. These
were men who shut themselves up in a house by them-
selves, called a monastery, and spent most of their time in
praying. They were not allowed to marry, and they never
saw their friends, or went to shows or amusements of any
kind. They wore a plain dress, usually brown or black,
hanging loose round their feet, and their hair was shaven.
In each monastery there was a chief man chosen by the
monks from among themselves, and called an abbot, whom
they all obeyed.
These monks did not always live in the monastery ;
sometimes the abbot would send out one or two to preach
in a particular town, or in some savage country, such as
Saxony, where the people had not yet learned to be
Christians. In the east of Eu;x)pe the monks often joined
in disturbances that rose in the cities, and excited the
people to join together against some emperor or pope, but
the western monks were far more quiet and peaceable, and
taught the people only to know and to do what was right,
according to their own ideas.
Many of the monks who did not go out to teach the
VII.] THE CARLOVINGIANS, 33
heathen, but stayed in the convent, studied, read books or
wrote them, and copied out books that had been written,
or old songs ; for as neither printing nor paper had at that
time been invented, anything that people wanted their
children and grandchildren to remember had to be written
down on parchment and kept in a great roll, and as the
writing it down was often a long business, and the monks
had plenty of time to spare, copying out writings of all
kinds came to be one of their chief employments. They
did it very beautifully, with little pictures or patterns,
called illuminations, at the beginnings and ends of lines
and chapters.
The monks were very much respected because of their
knowledge, their virtue, and theb industry. Men who
were tired of their life, who had been disappointed or
defeated, or who repented of wrong things they had done,
often made themselves monks. Sometimes children were
put into monasteries by their relations to prevent them
from becoming kings or chiefs, or great men in any way,
for no monk could ever come out into the world again.
Sometimes, also, men who had led good and happy lives
thought that they should be better and happier in a
monastery than in their homes or kingdoms.
In the time of Charles Martel several kings became
monks. An English monk named Winfrid had been sent
by the Pope and by Charles Martel to preach to the
Saxons. He persuaded thousands of them to be baptized,
and the king, as a reward, made him a bishop, and after-
wards an archbishop. But Winfrid would not be satisfied
whue there were still ignorant people to be taught ; he
gave his bishopric to a friend, and went to teach in a wild
D
34 THE CARLO VINGIANS. [CH.
part of the country, where many people were persuaded
by him to agree to be baptized. On the morning when
they were all assembled- for the baptism, a body of
heathens attacked them, and killed Winfrid, with the
whole assembly. Winfrid is also called Boniface, and you
may sometimes hear him spoken of as St Boniface.
There was one person in Europe whom all the monks
and abbots considered as their head in whatever country
they lived, and whom they all obeyed absolutely, and that
was the Bishop of Eome, called the Pope. As Eome had
been the most powerful city in the world, and even at this
time was one of the most important, so the Bishop of
Eome had more power than the bishop of any other city,
and was called pope or father. Many of the other bishops
obeyed him and i9iitated him in all that he did ; all
monks and abbots obeyed him, and even kings and princes
always tried to please him, because it was considered that
he could give, subjects leave to disobey their kings, or to
turn them out of their kingdoms ; so they all wished to
have the Pope for their friend.
" A Pope died in Eome just at the same time as Charles
Martel, Duke of the Franks, and the chief clergy chose a
new Pope called Zacharias.
The elder of Karl's two sons, after ruling well and
prosperously for six years over half of the land his father
left, went into a monastery and made over all his lands to
his younger brother Pepin. He joined an Italian monas-
tery, and lived there peacefully for some years. But at
that time many Prankish chiefs made journeys to Eome,
and their road passed near the monastery of the Duke of
the Pranks, so that they thought it only proper to pay
VII.] THE CARLOVINGIANS. 35
him a visit on their way ; till at last he was so much dis-
turbed by the number of his visitors, and their talk about
wars and battles, and all the aflFairs of the kingdom, that
he went away to another monastery out of the reach of all
travellers, and lived there in quiet and contentment for
the rest of his life. When his elder brother became a
monk, Pepin, the second son of Charles Martel, became
the only >duke of the Franks. He is Tmown as Pepin le
Bref, or the Short. He was not long duke, for by this
time every one began to think it absurd that one set of
/^men should have the name of kings, while another set had
all the power. One Merovingian king after another had
led the same lazy useless life ; at this time there was one
called Hilderik. Pepin asked the Pope whether he might
make himself king and turn out Hilderik.
Zacharias wished to make friends with Pepin, who
was, strong and warlike, and would, Zacharias hoped, help
him against some of his enemies. So the answer of the
Pope was : " He who has the power, ought also to have
the, name, of king.** The Pope having agreed to this
change, all the Franks did the same. Hilderik's long
flowing locks, the sign of his being a king, were cut off,
and he was shut up in a monastery. He died two years
afterwards, and was the last of the Merovingian kings.
Pepin was crowned by Winfrid, whom I mentioned
before, and he was the first of another line of kings called
the Carlovingians, from Carolus, Latin for Charles, which
was the name of Pepin's father, and of his still greater
son.
Pepin, who owed his crown to the Pope, did him good
service in return for it. He marched into Italy to defend
36 THE CARLOVINGIANS. [CH.
Borne and its bishop against some fierce Italian enemies
called the Lomjbards. He drove back the Lombards, took
from them some of the land which they had conquered
from other enetriies, and though it was not his to give,
made a present of it to the Pope, who till then had had
no land. But from this time Pepin's gift' was handed
down from one ^ope to another, and by degrees they
conquered more, and became masters of a kingdom in
Italy.
'■I
Pepin had, like his father, to fight against the Saxons,
but he was not able to conquer them, though he kept
them out of Franca He besieged a town in Southern
Gaul belonging to the Arabs for seven years, and at last
took it, and drove the last remaming Arabs over the
Pyrenees and back into Spain. Pepin reigned for sixteen
years ; he then fell ill and died, dividing his kingdom
between his two sons.
VIII J CHARLEMAGNE. 37
CHAPTEE VIII.
Charlemagne (771-814).
Pepin's two sons, Karl and Karloman, divided between
them their father's kingdom. Karloman died three years
later, and Karl became king of the whole. Karl is the
German for Charles, and while some of Karl's subjects,
who lived in Austrasia and spoke a language something
like the present German, called him Karl, the Neustrians,
who talked the language which has now become French,
called him Charles, and when he became great and power-
ful they added on to Charles a Latin word, magnus, mean-
ing great, Charles-magnus, and he was written of in history
and is to this day known as Charlemagne.
Charlemagne was one of the ^^^ most powerful
kings that ever ruled over any country. His kingdom was
verjr large ; it had in it almost aU that is now Germany,
and almost all of Italy. In Italy the Popes had asked him
to help them against the Lombards, which he did, and
after some trouble conquered that turbulent nation, had
the king shut up in a monastery, and gave the high places
in the State to Prankish chiefs instead of Lombards. He
also made war on the Arabs in Spain, on the Aquitanians,
who were the people living in the south-west part of
Prance, and on other nations whose names I will not
38 CHARLEMAGNE. [c«.
mention, except that of the Saxons, the old enemies of his
father and grandfather, against whom Charlemagne fought
for thirty-three years, and at last succeeded in conquering
them and forcing them to become Christians.
Charlemagne led a life of war ; he went out to fight
each summer, and came back to his own kingdom when
the severe winter weather began. He was hardly ever
defeated, for he was wise, warlike, and very active, moving
his soldiers about so quickly that he took his enemies by
surprise, and was able with a small body of- men to do
them as much harm as a slower general would have done
with a larger number. He held a council of war every
Easter, at which all his great chiefs, counts, viscounts,
barons, and even bishops were present, and he then told
them what wars he meant to undertake that year, and
asked them if they agreed, which they always did.
Charlemagne had made improvements in the armour
and weapons of his soldiers. They wore helmets on their
heads with vizors or pieces of steel that could be puUed
down to defend their faces while they were fighting, and
put up when they were in no danger, and a long buckler or
shield, instead of the round shield covered with skins, of
the old Gaul. The Franks fought with long -pointed,
two-handed swords, and with heavy clubs, covered with iron
knots, which must have killed their enemies in the most
unpleasant way possible. Charlemagne bought particularly
strong horses, bred in the pastures of the Bhine, for his
men, and he knew so much geography that, his army being
thus prepared, he was able always to send his soldiers to
the weakest parts of the country lie wished to attack.
He cared for other things, however, besides war ; he
yiiij CHARLEMAGNE. 39
watched over the education of his subjects and the laws of
the country ; be sent officers into the different provinces
to see that the judges were doing justice honestly to the
people ; he assembled all the chief men of the country
twice every year to help him to make laws, and to tell him
of any matter in which they or their neighbours had been
ill-treated, and wanted help or advice. He was anxious to
helg, to watch over, and to protect the poor. Many of his
laws about slaves are still remaining.
At this time there were more slaves in Gaul than there
had ever been before ; nine-tenths of the people were in
this state. The labourers on an estate,, who ware always
slaves, were cqnsidered as part qf the land» and if the
estate- was sold or given away, they went with it. The
only way in which a slave 6ould escape from slavery was
by fleeing for help to a 6ionastery, and as they were care-
fully watched by their masters' servants, this was very
difficult. No one thought or cared about the slaves ; but
Charlemagne, who was just and humane to all his subjects,
made laws to protect them as far as he could against un-
kind masters and the hardships they often had to suffer.
Charlemagne was fpnd of study of all sorts ; he knew
Latin and Greek, studied grammar, astronomy, music ;
he improved the German languiage, which was his own, by
inventing some of the words that were wanting in it, such
as the names of seasons, months, and winds. He tried
also \f> learn to write, but that was too hard for him. He
lik^d to see the wisest men of his time at his court, and
he received them well, and learned from them as much as
possible.
There is a story about him which shows how much he
40 CHARLEMAGNE, [CH.
cared that his subjects should l)e well taught and should
learn to be industrious and wise. Some monks came to his
court and asked leave to set up a school, which Charlemagne
granted them, and came often to see how the boys were
learning, and what progress they made.
On one of these visits he was told that some of the
boys, who were t|ie sons of poor men, had worked very
weU, but that others, the sons of noblemen, who thought
there would never be need for them to work for their
bread, had been idle and troublesome. Charlemagne
called up aU the boys before him, put the good ones on his
right hand, and the bad on his left, and made them a
speech, in which he thanked the poor boys for having done
his bidding and their duty, and promised them monasteries,
bishoprics, and aU kinds of honours if they continued to do
well, but severely reproved the yoxmg noblemen, telling
them that if they did not make up for their idleness by
hard work, they would get no good from Karl. We are
not told how the boys behaved afterwards, but we must
hope that they paid more attention to the king's lecture
than they had done to those of their Schoolmaster.
Charlemagne was gay and cheerful, fond of hunting,
feasting, joking, -and 4U kinds of amusement. A monk
who lived soon afterwards has left many stories about him.
He tells us how the king once commanded a troop of
courtiers, who were standing round him in aU their silk,
feathers, and fine clothes, to follow him to the chase as
they were, through storm, mud, and branibles ; and how
he made an unhappy chorister, who had forgotten his
responses, imitate the others who were singing, by making
a set of faces to look as if he were singing too.
VIII J CHARLEMAGNE, 41
Charlemagne never had any illness till he was seventy
years old, and to the end of his life he would have no
more to do with doctors thaa he could help, saying they
always advised him to eat boiled meat instead of roast,
which he preferred.
Charlemagne was always on friendly terms with the
Pope, as his father, Pepin le Bref, had been. One of the
Popes called Leo had to fly from Bome because the
Bomans^ rose up against him, accused him of several
wicked deeds, and tried to put out his eyes. He went for
help to Charlemagne, who received him kindly, and after
keeping him at his court for a year, took him back to
Bome, overcame and punished his enemies, and estab-
lished Leo as Pope again. Before Charlemagne left Bome
a solemn meeting was held on Christmas Day in the year
800 A.D., at which the Pope crowned the Prankish king
with a golden crown, poured holy oil upon his head, and
declared him to be the Emperor of the Bomans.
I must go back about eight himdred years to explain
what was meant by emperor. Julius Caesar, the conqueror
of the Gauls, had gone back to Bome when his work in
Gaul was ended, and had been chosen Dictator, which was
the name given to the person who had the chief power in
Bome. Dictators usually kept their power for six months
only, but he was made Dictator for life. He was soon
afterwards murdered by some of the Bomans, who thought
he had too much power; but after his death such struggles,
wars, and disturbances of all kinds took place amongst the
diflferent men who wanted to become rulers of the country,
that the Bomans determined to choose one ruler once for
all, to call him Emperor, and to allow him to leave the
42 CHARLEMAGNE. [CH.
title to his son> or to any one he might choose to succeed
him.
From this time, foy four hundred years, one empeijor
after another reigneipl over all the cpuntry belonging to the
Bomans. At last the first Christian emperor, who found
the people of Bome hard to govern, and inclined to rise
up against him. and resist him in many ways, determined
to leave Bome and build a new city for his capital. This
he did, and called it after his own name, Constantinople.
It is now the capital of Turkey, and, as may be seen in the
map, is a long way from Bome.
This emperor left two sons, one of whom ruled in
Bome, and the other in Constantinople. The country
which had made one empire was divided into two — ^the
Western Empire, which had Bome for its capital, and the
Eastern, which had Constantinople. Since the barbarians
had taken Bome there had been no Emperor of the West ;
the Pope had been the chief person in Bome, and it might
have been supposed that the Pope would not wish to have
an emperor over himself but would rather continue to be
the chief man in the city and in the country.
But the Popes had enemies in Italy, and they wished
to find some nation to fight their battles, be their soldiers,
and protect them in all difficulties. Pope Leo thought
that by making Charlemagne emperor, which was sup-
posed to give him power over all Italy and all other
countries belonging to the Bomans, he should make sure
of always having hinn for a friend ; and as Charlemagne
was the best and bravest soldier in Europe, the Pope
thought he would be the best possible friend to have.
Charlemagne therefore became Emperor of France,
viiij CHARLEMAGNE. 43
of Germany, and of Italy. He himself was a Grerman and
not a Frenchman; he spoke German, and his dress, his
habits, and his tastes, were German.
He felt himself growing old. and determined to divide
his^mpire among his sons, of whom he had three. Two
of them, however, died before their father. Louis, the
third son, was thie only one remaining at Charlemagne's
death, and he became, like his father. Emperor of the West,
and ruler over the whole of his father's enormous empire.
44 DESCENDANTS OF CHARLEMAGNE, [CH.
i;
CHAPTEE IX.
Descendants of Charlemagne (814-843).
The new emperor gained the name of Louis le D^bonnaire
from his gentleness and piety. He was a good but a weak
man. He was anxious to do good to all his subjects and
improve their condition, and while his father lived he
governed Aquitaine, a province in the south of France,
wisely and well with the help of his wife. He could do
nothing without the help of others ; he had many Church-
men about him, and he himself was at one time anxious
to be a monk. He had three sons, and his reign is
remarkable chiefly for the quarrels he had with them, and
they with each other.
After Louis had reigned for three years, he called
together an assembly of ^he Franks, and told them the
arrangement he ha^ made for the division of the empire
at his death. His eldest son Was to be emperor, to have
Italy, most of France, and a great part of Germany ; his
second son was to have a small part of France ; the third
a small part of Germany. The younger sons, although
they were called kings, were to do nothing important
without asking leave of their brother, the emperor. The
younger sons yr^re angry at this arrangement, as they had
hoped that the empire would be equally divided, and
that each would have complete power over his own share.
IX.] DESCENDANTS OF CHARLEMAGNE, 45
They did not dare, however, to rebel against their
father, and all went weU till the wife of Louis died about
two years later. Louis, in his sorrow, again thought of
becoming a monk, but his chiefs persuaded him to remain
on the throne and to choose another wife. Search was
made for the most beautiful lady in the kingdom, and at
last one was chosen, called Judith, beautiful, clever, but so
ambitious or fond of power, as to cause great trouble to
the emperor. She soon had a son called Charles, of whom
the three sons of Louis became jealous. The emperor
made another division of his empire, by which he took
away a small part of the country that was to have
belonged to one of the others, to make a share for his
fourth son Charles. The other brothers were angry at
this, and rose up against their father.
The nobles, the clergy, the soldiers, joined the sons, aU
having some reason for disliking Louis or Judith, and the
emperor was taken prisoner and shut up in a convent,
while his eldest son reigned in his nama Soon, however,
some of the Germans returned to the side of Louis, brought
him out of the convent, and restored him to power. Prom
this time to the end of his life the poor emperor had no
more quiet Sometimes one, sometimes another, some-
times two of his sons at once, rebelled against him. He
had not many wars with enemies outside the kingdom,
but he had wars with his own subjects and children, which
was much worse. At last he died on his way back from
making war against his second son.
One of the three elder sons had died, so that there were
now only three altogether — Loliiaire, Louis, and Charles.
Lothaire tried to make himself emperor as his father had
46 DESCENDANTS OF CHARLEMAGNE, [CH.
- - - r - .. -. ■ ■- -
/
been, and called upon his brothers to submit to him.
They refused, and a great battle was fought at a place
called Fqntanet between Lothaire on one side^ Louis and
Charles on the other. The fluestion was whether Charle-
magne's empire should remain one country and be
governed by one man, ^he Mngs of the different divisions
being all less great than the emperor, and obliged to
consult him in what they did ; or whether the different
countries of Europe should be entirely separate from one
another, and the king of each should govern as he chose.
The battle was a terrible one ; it is* said that 40,000
men were killed on each side. Louis and Charles were
victorious, and drove Lothaire from the field. But still he
would not yield ; he collected more men, and again
attacked his brothers, who were too strong for him, and
drove him from one place to another. At last Lothaire
yielded, and sent a message to his brothers, saying he
would be content with a third part of the empire, if they
would allow him a larger share than their own, as he was
still to be called emperor. They agreed, and a treaty of
peace was made. Charles had France, Louis Germany,
Lothaire Italy and a strip of land between France and
Germany, part of which is still called Lorraine from its
old name Lotharingia, meaning the land of Lothaire. This
is the strip of land for which the French and the Germans
have so often fought with one another. Lothaire, King of
Italy, was called Emperor, but had no power over the
other two. One remarkable event happened while the
war was going on between Lothaire and his brothers.
After the battle of Fontanet, Louis and Charles determined
to take an oath of fidelity to each other before their two
\/'
/
IX.] DESCENDANTS OF CHARLEMAGNE, 47
annies — that is, to promise solemnly that they would
always be friends and faithful to one another.
The soldiers were drawn up : Charles explained to his
men, the Gallic Franks, and Louis to his followers, the
Germans, what the oath was which they were going to
take; then Charles took the oath in Frankish language, so
that the Germans might understand, while Louis took it
in the language spoken at that time in Charles's country,
then ^called Francia, now known as France. The oaths
were written down and kept, and that taken by Louis is
the oldest piece of French writing that remains to us. It
is like enough to the present French for people to be able
to understand it now. It was a language which came
from the mixing of the German spoken by the Franks
when they first came into Gaul with the Latin which had
been brought into the country and taught to the old Gauls
by the Eomans, but there was much more of the Latin
than of the German. From this time we may begin to
use the word France, which has been the name of the
country since the time of King Charles.
48 THE LAST CARLOVINGIAN KINGS, [CH.
CHAPTEE X.
The Last Carlovingian Kings (843-987).
Charles, who .was known a3 Charles the Bald, was the
first king who ruled over France alone : we saw that the
old Merovingian kings were rulers over part only of the
country ; and Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis le Dfebon-
naire were rulers over other countries as welL
From the time of Louis le D^bonnaire France and
Germany have been completely different countries, and
have never had the same ruler. Charles had no other
country besides France to govern, and there was no other
king beside him in France ; but yet he ought not to be
considered as a French king, for he had not power over
the whole country. Three large provinces refused to obey
him, the great lords did what they pleased without con-
sidering him, and the ITormans came into many of the
large towns to carry off whatever treasures they might
find there. Charles himself was not a Frenchman but a
German, as his father, Louis le D^bonnaire, and his grand-
father, Charlemagne, had been. He could speak Latin,
however, and his subjects were quickly losing all the
German out of their language, and speaking only what was
called Eomance, a language made from the mingling of
bad, incorrect Latin, such as was talked by the common
people, with some remains of the language belonging to
the old Gauls before they were invaded by the Komans.
X.] THE LAST CARLO VINGIAN KINGS. 49
When the Emperor Lothaire died, Charles wished to
be made emperor, and was crowned King of Italy by the
Pope. He afterwards made war on the sons of his other
brother, Louis, King of Germany, but they d^eated him
and drove him back towards France. On his way across
the mountain called the Mcmt Cenis, he was taken iU, and
died in a poor hut.
One of the few remarkable events that happened in his
reign was that, in order to please the nobles, and persuade
them to go and fight with him against the sons of Lo»uis,
Charles made a law tbait the lands h^ld by his chief nobles
should become hereditary, that is, might be passed on from
father to son, and not come back, to the king at alL This
had for some time been the custom, but it now became
the law.
Aftei Charles, hia son, Louis the Stammers, became
king, and reigned for two years ; he was weak, foolish, and
ready to obey the nobles instead of making them obey him.
When he died, his kingdom was divided between his two
elder sons,, who were as weak as himself, and could not
even defend the small part of the country which belonged
to them. They both died, and the King of Germany, who
was emperor, called himself King of France also ; but he
was a foolish, helpless man, and could not defend the
people against the Northmen, who invaded them at this
time in great numbers.
The state of France under these weak, foolish kings
was miserable. The powerful people in the country were
the great nobles and the Northmen. France was divided
into many provinces, some of which had the same names
that the French provinces have to this day, such as Cham-
E
60 THE LAST CARLOVINGIAN KINGS. [CH.
pagne, Anjou, Brittany, Burgundy. Each of these pro-
vinces belonged to a chief or nobleman, called sometimes
Duke and sometimes Count. They were the descendants,
sons, grandsons, or great-grandsons of the chiefs to whom
the first kings had given these pieces of land in reward
for their services in battle, or who had conquered them for
themselves when they first came into the country. Some-
times the prince of one of these provinces would die and
leave no children, when the king would take the land for
himself and either keep it, or, more probably, give it to
some other chief whom he wished to please or reward.
About this time the chiefs, who had been called lendes^
began to be known as barons — a name under which much
is to be heard of them in the History of England.
The barons, when first their lands were given to them
by the king, had promised to do certain things in return
for them ; to follow him with a fixed number of men when
he went to war, and to do other services of different kinds ;
but their descendants often refused to perform what had
been promised, and would hardly allow that the king was
in any way greater than they. The great barons gave
away part of their lands to other barons, less rich and less
strong than they, who were called their vassals, and the
great barons were the vassals of the king.
Many of the barons were careless> idle men, who cared
more for war and amusement than for work of any peaceful
kind. They were fond of fighting, hunting, and feasting, but
could not bear to work in the field, to till the ground, or to
take care of their flocks. They therefore bought or made
prisoners great numbers of slaves, and left them to attend
to the lands, while they themselves went to the court of
X.] THE LAST CARLOVINGIAN KINGS. 51
the chief barop in the neighbourhood, and made merry
there, feasting and hunting. It may be imagined that the
slaves, left to themselves, did not cultivate the lands as
well as they might have done if they had been paid for their
work and directed by their masters. Large parts of the
country had been allowed to grow wild, and forests and
sheepwalks covered the ground where cornfields and
villages should have stood. In the forests were thieves,
who lived upon what they could steal from travellers or
from some peaceful household or monastery.
Another misfortune which happened to the people was
that their country was attacked by the Northmen or Nor-
mans, who lived in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
They were fierce heathens, poor, brave, and active, who
were always leaving their own barren land to look for some
rich country from which they might steal food, goods,
money — anything that came in their way. They could go
to any place that could be reached by water. They sailed
along the coast of France and up aU the rivers, burning,
steaUng, and destroying as they went ; some of them went
to England, some to Bussia, others to Spain, Italy, Ice-
land, Greenland, and America.
In England they were bravely resisted by Eling Alfred,
who drove them out of the country many times, and at
last allowed some of them to come and settle there on
condition of their becoming Christians. The French
kings and nobles were not so brave, they could do nothing
but give the Northmen money to persuade them to go away,
which of course made them come back again all the
sooner.
At last the Northmen made themselves masters of
62 THE LAST CARLOVINGIAN KINGS, [CH.
several cities in the north of France, and stayed there in-
stead of going back to their own coftintry. They had a
leader named Solf or Bollo, under whom they lived, and
the country which they had taken for theirs soon showed
an example of peace and prosperity to all the country
round.
The king and the clergy thought it would he well to
have these powerful neighbours for friends rather than for
enemies, and as they could not be driven out of the
country, the king sent to EoUo, offering him his daughter
for a wife, and the country in which he had settled for
himself and his sons for ever, on condition of his acknow-
ledging the French king as his lord, becoming a Christian,
and living in peace with the rest of the kingdom. Eollo
agreed, became a Christian, married Gisela the French
princess, built towns and fine buildings, and ruled his
country so well, that in twenty years' time, Normandy,
the land of the Northmen, was the best governed province
in France. The Normans qiiickly learned the new French
language, and by making laws and writing balkds in it, did
much to settle it and bring it into common use.
Among the other provinces or divisions of the country
was one named France, which was gradually giving its
name to the whole. Paris was the capital of this province,
which was not at that time considered as in any way more
important than the other provinces. It had a duke named
Odo, one of the few men who had bravely resisted the
Danes, and after the death of the son of Louis the
Stammerer, when the only remaining Carlovingian prince
was a child of five years old, the nobles chose Odo of Paris
to be their king.
X.] THE LAST CARLOVINGIAN KINGS. 53
His kingdom was a small one ; he had no power beyond
the duchy of France, and even in his own duchy the
nobles were gaining more and more power, building strong
castles, keeping bodies of soldiers, doing justice themselves,
and defeiMiing from all enemies their servants and the poor
people who lived in their villages. By degrees a village
gathered roimd each castle, and every noble became like a
king of a very small kingdom. This was a bad thing for the
power of the kings, but it was good for the poor, who in this
way were protected from every one exc^t their own master,
who often used them badly enough. They were called
seife, and were something between slaves and servants, but
more like slaves, as they were paid for their work only by
the houses and food which were given to them, and could
never leave tiie estate of one lord to go away to another ;
but if the estate were sold they were sold with it, as if they
had been mere instruments or tools for work.
Odo had been king for about six years when he was
attacked by the Carlovingtan prince, Charles the Simple,
who was now growing up to be a man. Some of Odo's
»
subjects took the side of Charles, others were faithful to
Odo. Afiber some fighting it was agreed that Odo should
be king while he lived, and Charles after him. This was
done ; Odo died, Charles became king, and Eobert, Odo's
brother, was made duke of the duchy of France.
Charles reigned for twenty-four years. He is called
^Charles the Simple out of politeness ; his nickname, Le Sot,
really means the Fool, and as he seems to have done
nothing all the twenty-four years of his reign, he prob-
ably deserved the name. The one important thing that
happened in his reign was the settlement of the Normans
54 THE LAST CARLOVINGIAN KINGS. [CH.
in Prance. Even in that matter Charles did only what he
was advised to do by the clergy.
The settlement of the Normans is a very important
event, and makes the reign of Charles* the Simple worth
remembering. From that time the French had before them
an example of good government and of a prosperous
country, of courage, activity, and liberty ; and it was im-
portant for England also in a different way.
At last Charles's nobles rose up against him and drove
him from the country. He returned with an army, and
tried to make himself king once more, but was taken
prisoner by one of his barons, and kept so till he died
seven years afterwards.
His son Louis, who had been brought up in England,
was then made king. He was a brave, spirited young
man, and defended himseK for some years against the
German Emperor, who tried to become master of France ;
and the King of Denmark, who attacked his country and
at one time made him prisoner. Louis died from a fall
out hunting ; his son and grandson succeeded him, reign-
ing, one for thirty-two years, the other for one year. The
grandson had no children, and thus the family of the Car-
lovingians, the descendants of Charlemagne, came to an end.
XL] HUGH CAPET. 65
CHAPTEE XL
Hugh Capet — Robert (987-1031).
The brave Count Odo, who had been made king before
the reign of Charlea the Simple, had left a brother, called
Robert, the Duke of France. Eobert had a son, named
Hugh the Great, who had more power than any one else in
France through the reigns of the last Carlovingian kings,
and who might have been king himself had he wished it.
He was brave and wise, and might have made a good
king, but he died Duke of France, leaving behind him a
son, also named Hugh, who was made duke in his father's
place.
When the Carlovingians were all dead — except one
who was an uncle of the last king, and lived at the Court
of the German emperor — the barons of northern France
all joined in choosing Hugh, Duke of France, to be their
king. They did not consider that this made him much
mo^ important or more powerful than themselves. He
was solemnly crowned, and he managed to make friends,
in the course of his reign, with many of the nobles, with *
the clergy, and the people of the towns. He made himself
master, by degrees, of several of the states where the barons
had been ruling, each like a smaU king in his own country:
From this time, for seven himdred years, the kings of
France were constantly trying to gain one province after
66 HUGH CAPET. [CH.
another from the great counts and dukes, who passed them
down from father to son, as the kings of France did with
the country.
I have mentioned the names of some of the chief pro-
vinces — Anjou, Burgundy, Brittany, Normandy. There
were several others, but these were four of the most
important Normandy was conquered about 200 years
later than the time of which I write ; Anjou and Burgundy
were taken by Hie French king about 500 years later,
their prinoes having died without children ; Brittany was
won later still by a IVench king marrying the daughter
of the last of the dukes.
Thus it was only by very small degrees that France
grew to its present size, and the early kings had but little
power, for their barons were nearly as strong as they.
The clergy were on the side of Hugh, for he had many
abbeys and church lands belonging to him, and they
wished to have him for a friend. Hugh also made friends
with the Duke of Normandy, but some of the other barons
joined together to try and drive him from the kingdom.
Hugh was aUe to resist them. He fought against them
for some years, in spite of some of the men, whom he most
trusted, deserting him and going over to the other side.
Hugh was successful at last; his chief enemy died, and
he continued king tiU his death, though not without many
struggles.
He was never master of any part of France south of
the Loire. There was a strong duke there,. and another in
Normandy. But they did not dispute Hugh's right to
be king, or object to his son being so after him. Hugh
was called Capet, either from a hood or cape which he
XL] ROBEkT. hi
used to wear instead of a crown, or from* the size of his
head — caput being the Latin fcnr head. He was the first
of the line of Idngs called Gapetians, who reigned in
France about twice as long as the Carlovingians had
done.
The next king was Bobert, the son of Hugh. He had
been crowned in his father's lifetime, and when Hugh died,
carried on the government by himself. Bobert was a kind,
gentle, humble man, but not a wise one, and so not fit to
be a king. He was foolishly good-natured, letting people
have everything they wanted, without considering whether
or not it was right for them to have it. He once saw a
man cutting off a gold ornament from his own royal robe ;
he only laughed and let the thief take it. Another day he
saw a priest steal a candlestick out of a church. He said,
" IJLj friend, run for your life to your home in Lorraine,"
and gave him money for his escape. A king who behaves
to thieves in this way, as if what they were doing were
quite right and proper, is not likely to have honest
subjects.
He was always followed about by twelve poor men,
and as his wife did not like to see be^ars at dinner with
her and the king, he would sometimes hide one under the
table and pass down to him food off his o\ni plate.
Sobert had a wife named Bertha, of whom he was very
fond. The Pope found out that she was the fourth cousin
of the king, and told him that she must not remain his
wife. It was supposed that the Pope had the right to
settle such matters, but the king resisted for some time.
The Pope then laid the country under a ban. I have
already said that most of the bishops in all countries obeyed
58 ROBERT. [CH.
the Pope, and a6 time went on people of all kinds got more
and more into the habit of obeying him, though in France
both the clergy and the king were inclined to resist him,
and declare that they could Settle their own affairs without
his advice. The Pope used sometimes to tell the subjects
of a king that they need obey him no longer, and it was
then considered that he had left off being king, and if he
did not yield of himseK, the friends of the Pope would
sometimes rise up against him, and turn him out of the
kingdom by force.
The Pope had other powers ; he could excommunicate
any one who displeased him. An excommunicated person
was, as much as possible, cut off from every one else ; no
one was to speak to him, to wait upon him, to sell him
food or anything else. He was never to be allowed to go
into a church, and was considered by all who beUeved in
the Pope as an enemy and an outlaw. Sometimes the
Pope would put the whole kingdom under a ban or inter-
dict, and then all the people in it were considered excom-
municated, no services might be held in the country, and
it was believed that any one who died excommunicated
would be shut out from heaven.
When Eobert refused to give up his wife, and the Pope
laid the kingdom imder a ban, the French bishops excom-
municated Eobert and Bertha. After a time Robert yielded,
sent away his wife, and soon after married another, named
Constance, who was beautiful and clever, but gave great
trouble to the king by her bad temper and self-will.
At this time there arose an idea among the people of
Europe that the world was coming to an end. There have
always been, and there still are, people who think they can
XL] ROBERT, 59
ft
find out what we are particularly told in the Bible that
no one knows, when the world as it is now will come to
an end, and men will live upon it no longer. There had
for some time been an idea that the world would end one
thousand years after the ^irth of Jesus Christ, and as the
year came near, people became so much frightened that
many of them gave up their lands, went into monasteries,
or made journeys called pilgrimages to churches and holy
places, all of which would, they thought, be pleasing to
God, and make them more fit to die. They imagined that
^ », »g» .nd fig«« m a>e .t,, ».d L i.Tko« d.y.
people knew nothing about comets, eclipses, meteors, or
any of the curious sights that are often to be seen by those
who watch for them, it is very likely that they did see
many wonderful things in the sky which they could not
explain, but which certainly did not mean that the world
was coming to an end; for it has gone on from that time
to this, for more than eight himdred years, and, as far as
we know, there is no reason why it should not go on for
another eight hundred years, or longer stilL
The eldest son of King Eobert and Constance was
crowned while his father was still alive, but died soon after.
The king then had his youngest son crowned, which dis-
pleased Constance, who wished one of his elder brothers
to be king. Eobert had struggles with many of the great
barons, the Duke of Anjou in particular ; and twice in his
reign there was a rising up against him in different parts
of the country. Once some poor peasants tried vainly to
resist their powerful lords, and again some men, who had
a different religion from their neighbours, rose up and made
some confusion and disturbance ; but Eobert managed to
60 ROBERT. [CH.
oTercome them all and lemained king till his death, which
happened almost at the same time as the deaths of the two
other great princes of France, the Duke of Normandy and
the Duke of Aquitaine.
/ ..." " ' ^i pflJ
Wof^^ t iJC^B# ■ fint^*
XII.] HENRY L 61
CHAPTEE XII.
Henby I. (1031-1060).
A SUBJECT of the Duke of Anjou, who naturally disliked
King Eobert as the enemy of his master, wrote in a history
of his own time, " Eobert we have ourselves seen reigning
most slothfuUy ; his son, the present kinglet Henry, is not
at all behind him in lazinesa" It is probably true that
Eobert was slothful; he does not seem to have done much
in the thirty-five years of his reign; the wonder is how so
weak and foolish a man^ with so many enemies, can have
kept himself on the throne for so long a time.
His son Henry was as weak as he had been. At the
beginning of his reign he was attacked by his mother,
Constance, and one of his brothers. It was, perhaps, as
well for him that Constance died a few months later» and
he was left to govern his kingdom as best he could.
At this time many of his subjects were again disturbed
by fears of the end of the world. They thought that as it
had not come one thousand years aft^r the birth of Jesus
Christ, it might come one thousand years after His death.
Some people felt so sure of this, that they said it was of no
use to sow corn, as they should be dead by the next year.
They thus did what they could to make themselves die, for of
course when the next year came, they had nothing to eat.
62 HENRY L [CH.
There followed one after another three years in which
the weather was so horrible that there was neither seed-
time nor harvest. All over 'Europe there was famine,
misery, and sickness. The poor people had nothing to eat
but roots, grass, and clay, and they died by thousands.
Sometimes troops of wolves came out of the forests, and
devoured every one whom they met.
But after these three dreadful years there came a time
of great plenty, and the people took courage again. There
were fresh pilgrimages made to Jerusalem, and the bishops,
seeing that the country was being ruined by the weakness
of the king and the lawlessness of the people, thought that
now was a good time to persuade the people to live quietly
and peacefully, neither to fight with one another, nor to
hurt harmless passengers. The barons found it hard to
give up their private wars; but at last the bishops met to-
gether and determined that on certain days in every week,
and on all days at certain times of the year, fighting should
be entirely forbidden, and every one should be bound to
keep what was called The Peace of God.
This law answered very well. From Thursday even-
ing to Monday morning in each week no one might fight
at all, and this was a great stop to private wars, that is to
wars between one chief and another, while the rest of the
country was at peace. It obliged the barons to stay more
at home in their castles and with their families than they
had ever done before.
This led them to take more interest in peaceful busi-
ness, to keep their houses in better order, and to look after
their lands and fields more carefully than in old times,
when they could fight every day in the year. It was a
XII.] HENRY L 63
great comfort to all travellers and peaceful people to have
some days on which they could travel without any fear of
meeting the fierce soldiers, who probably did not care
much whether passers-by were Mends or enemies, if there
seemed a good chance that anything could be taken from
them.
It was in the reign of Henry L that one of the dukes
of Normandy died, leaving behind him a child named
William, who was duke after him, and who, after showing
himself to be a brave and wise warrior in his own country,
was to lead his Normans to another, where he would be-
come evien more powerful than he had been in France.
King Henry's first wife died, and he married the
daughter of the Duke of Eussia, the most distant prince of
whom he could hear, in order that there might be no fear
of her being found to be his relation, as had happened to
Bobert with Bertha. They had a son named Philip, who
when he was seven years old was crowned, as was then
the custom, while his father was still alive.
All this time the emperors of Germany were following
one another on the throne, but we have nothing to do
with them. France and Germany were at this time dis-
tinct countries, and though it might have happened that
the French King should also be Emperor of Grermany —
and iu fact the empire was once offered to King Bobert —
it never did happen that the same sovereign ruled over
the two countries.
When the emperor died a fresh one was chosen by the
people ; it was not always the son of the last emperor, but
any one who seemed strong or wise, or able to govern well.
In France, as you see, the son always succeeded his father.
64 HENRY L [CH.
^- ■■■ ■■■■■M l^— . .-^ ■ ■ ^ ■ ■— ^1 ■ I I MM ■,■■■■ I M ■ ^^^^— ■ ■ ■■ ■ I ^
Henry I. was not a great man ; he took no part in any-
thing that was going on in Europe ; he behaved as if he
were no greater than his own barons, and let the emperor
conquer part of France without seeming to care at all, or
interfering in any way. He died at last, and his son
Philip became sole King of France.
Philip I. seems to have been much the same kind of
man as his father. He had a long reign, and many im-
portant things happened in different parts of Europe, but
he took no share in them whatever. Soon after King
Henry's death, William, Duke of Normandy, came to tell
Philip that he had determined to go to En^and in hopes
of making himself king there, and offering if Philip would
help him with men or money, to do homage to the King of
France for any country he might conquer, that is to
acknowledge Philip to be his master, and to do nothing im-
portant without consulting him. But Philip would have
nothing to do with William, refused him all help, and sent
him away. William easily found other friends, and as
many followers as he wanted ; he sailed to England, landed
at Pevensey, defeated Harold King of England^ who was
killed at the battle of Hastings, and reigned over England
for many years as William the Conqueror, leaving his crown
to his son. He owed no gratitude to the man who had
refused to help him, and instead of being Philip's vassal,
as he might have been if Philip had agreed to his offers,
he was now a king much stronger and more powerful
than Philip himself.
Philip, like his grandfather Bobert, had a quarrel with
the Pope about his wife. This time it was clearly the
king who was in the wrong. Philip sent away his wife, and
xiij PHILIP L 66
^ . , : » 1
I
carried off the wife of the Duke of Anjou. The Pope told
him to send away the Duke of Anjou's wife and to take
back his own. He promised to do so, and broke his
promises. The Pope excommunicated him, but was too
busy with wars and troubles of his own to have much
time to attend to Philip's evil doings. At this time there
were great wars between the Emperor of Germany and the
Pope. The Popes were very anxious to have the Kings
of France on their side, and PhUip was allowed to go on
living his bad life in peace for some time.
At last the Pope went over the Alps to hold a council
in France. The country had again fallen into a miserable
state. The barons grew more and more fierce, and dis-
turbed all their more peaceful neighbours by their wars
with one another. An old writer of those times says,
" War was preferred before peace by the princes of the
earth, who quarrelled ceaselessly." The Pope had a pro-
posal to make to the barons and people, which he hoped
would make them stop quarrelling with one another, rid
the country of some if not most of the fiercest of the
barons, and briug honour and power to himself.
I said that when people believed the end of the world
to be near, many of them made pilgrimages, or long
journeys, to places which they thought holy, usually to
the tomb of some good man. It was generally thought
that the longer and more difficult the journey, the more
good was to be had from the pilgrimage. The tomb most
distant from the countries of Europe was also that which
in itself was the most holy, the tomb of Jesus Christ in
Jerusalem.
It is hard to believe that people in those days, when
F
66
PHILIP L
[CH.
there were few and bad roads, no trains, no steamboats,
scarcely any carriages, no comfortable inns by the way, or
maps to show the road, can have made their way from
France, England, or Ireland, to Jerusalem ; but it did
happen again and again that pilgrims took the journey
successfully, saw the sepulchre of Christ, and came home
believing that everything they had done wrong was for-
given them, and that they had done what was more pleas-
ing to God than anything else.
This had begun hundreds of years before the time of
Philip I. The Eomans used to take the journey, which for
them was not so long a one ; some of the old Latin writers
used to try to turn away people fix)m making this pil-
grimage; they said that the journey was unnecessary, for
that people who believed God to be everywhere present,
might pray to Him in their own homes as well as any-
where else. But people continued to go in great numbers;
the journey was interesting, there were new countries to
be seen, exciting adventures to be gone through, and
valuable things to be bought cheaply in the East, and sold
for a great price in Europe.
Some people went for these reasons, but probably more
went disliking the journey and thinking that what was so
unpleasant must be right to do. Many people have an
idea that it is right to do unpleasant things, not because
of any reason for doing them, or of their being of any use
to any one, but just because they are disagreeable. In
those days any one who had done anything wrong was told
by the priests to punish himseK by doing something he
did not like — going without food for a long time, giving
away a great deal of money, or going on a pilgrimage.
. I
^nj PHILIP L 67
■ ■I ■ .1 ■ I , > I II ■ I I I .
Arrangements were made in many countries for the
convenience of pilgrims. Charlemagne ordered that they
should be provided with food and lodging all through his
kingdom ; many of the monasteries were built partly as
resting-places for them. The Mahommedans who had con-
quered Jerusalem treated them well, and allowed them to
worship undisturbed at the sepulchre ; but after a time the
Mahommedans began to fight with one another, and the
journey to Jerusalem became unsafe. At last the Turks
conquered Jerusalem, and settled themselves there. They
at once began to ill-treat the Christians, to take away what
money they had, and to make them as uncomfortable as
possibla
When the Christians got back to Europe they told every
one how badly they had been treated ; and in particular a
monk called Peter the Hermit not only made the Pope
very angry by his account of what he had seen, but tra-
velled over all Europe describing the cruelty of the Turks
in many different countries, and trying to persuade his
hearers to send protection and help.
With Peter the Hermit telling them the same things
as their own friends, the people who heard him were easily
persuaded to believe what he said. The Pope meant to
help him by making a speech on the same subject at the
council which was to be held in France. He hoped to be
able to persuade many of the barons and people in France
to go in an army to the Holy Land, which was the name
given to the country of which Jerusalem was the diief
town, and force the Turks to behave well to the Christians,
to give them leave to worship at the sepulchre, or at least
to promise not to ill-treat them on their way to Jerusalem.
68 PHILIP L [CH.
CHAPTEB Xm.
Philip I. (1060-1108).
The Council was held at a place called Clennont, in the
centre of France. The Pope had first to arrange several
matters of business. Among other things he again excom-
municated Philip I. of France ; but little notice was taken
of this, as every one was much more interested in the
question about Jerusalem. The Pope made his great speech
to a large meeting of people. He described the cruelties
of the Turks, and the way in which they behaved at Jeru-
salem, and called upon every one who heard him to go to
the defence of the Holy City and the sepulchre of Christ.
He promised that all those who went should be forgiven
everything wrong they had done, and if they died by the
way, should go at once to heaven.
None of the common people doubted that the Popes
had the power of saying whether they should go to heaven
or not, and Pope XJrban's promise persuaded many men to
take the journey who might otherwise have stayed at home.
The Pope asked his hearers whether they would go, and
they cried out, " Dieu le veut ;" God wills it. The, Pope
then begged the bishops, who were going home to their
diflferent parts of the country, to preach to their people as
he had done to them, anil to try to persuade as many men
as possible to join an army which was soon to set out' for
^1
xni.1 PHILIP L 69
Jerusalem. Some of the bishops promised eagerly ; " some
wept, some doubted, some were disturbed ;" but when they
got back among their people and began to obey the Pope's
commands, they found that the poor people, who had pro-
bably heard some of the speeches of Peter the Hermit, were
ready and eager to set out on the journey, and by degrees
not men only but women and children came to declare
themselves ready to follow Peter, or any one who would
show them the way to the Holy Land.
Several of the great barons also declared themselves
ready to be leaders of the army. It was to set out in nine
months ; but the poor people were too eager to wait so
long. A band of serfs, monks, people who owed money
and could not pay, with other bad men who wanted to
escape from the country, all met together and set out with
Peter the Hermit for a guide. They had only eight horse-
men among them, and one soldier named Walter the Penni-
less. They managed to reach Asia after many wanderings,
and were at once attacked by the Turks and entirely de-
stroyed. When their friends who were following them
arrived at the place^ they found only a pyramid of whitened
bones. Peter the Hermit, however, seems in some way or
other to have escaped.
The Pope was anxious that this war against the Turks
should be considered a specially holy one, and that every-
one who went on it should be respected by his neighbours,
so that others might b6 led to follow his example. He
gave crosses to all the soldiers who set out on the journey
to the Holy Land; they were sometimes small metal
ornaments, or more often linen or cloth cut into the
shape of a cross. These men with the cross were called
70 ' PHILIP L fCH.
Crusaders, firom a Latin word meaning cross, and the war
was called a Crusade.
The barons, counts, and dukes assembled their men
slowly. They formed three great armies ; one was from
Lorraine, the country between France and Germany, of
which the people were German rather than Frencih ; they
were led by one of the bravest soldiers of that time,
Godfrey, Duke of Bouillon. The second army was en-
tirely French, and had at its head, Hugh the brother of
Philip L ; Eobert, Duke of Normandy, the brother of the
English king, William Eufus ; and the Duke of Brittany.
The third army was made up of Aquitanians and other
men from the south of France, and was led by the chief
man of those parts, the Count of Toulouse.
These three armies went different ways through
Europe, and were a great trouble to the countries through
which they had to pass, especially to the Emperor of
Constantinople, who had to let them stay in his city
while they were waiting to cross over into Asia. They
all met in Asia at last, and marched towards Jerusalem.
They came to a city named Antioch, and after a long
siege took it, and made one of their chiefs Prince there.
Many thousands of the Crusaders had been killed in the
journey to Antioch and the siege. There had been about
six hundred thousand of them; there were now only
forty thousand, and Jerusalem was defended by a large
Turkish army. But the Crusaders had gone too far to
turn back ; they attacked Jerusalem, and after a siege of
five weeks and a great struggle, the Christians became
masters of it, exactly two years and eleven months after
the day fixed for the setting out of the Crusade.
XIII J PHILIP L ,71
1 . — _____ , .
Godfrey of Bouillon was made King of Jerusalem ;
two other leaders made themselves princes of two of the
other chief towns ; many of the Crusaders, among them
Peter the Hermit, went home to Europe; and others
stayed to help to rule the new kingdom. The Turks
waited their time. Soon after the end of the first Crusade
Philip had his eldest son crowned, and they reigned to-
gether for eight years, at the end of which time Philip
died, and his son Louis became sole king.
Many great changes came to the French people in
consequence of the Crusades. Some of these were changes
for the better, and some changes for the worse. One of
the worst changes was that people became accustomed
to think it right to fight with any one whose religion was
different from their own. They had been taught that a
crusade was a holy war, and that it was right and noble
to undertake it, and they were next taught that every
war was a crusade which was ordered by the Pope, or
was against people who did not beUeve in the rehgion
he taught.
The Crusades, for there were many others after the
first one, besides accustoming people to wars about reli-
gion, had the bad consequence of wasting the lives of
great numbers of men. I have said that more than five
hundred thousand men died on the way from France to
Antioch, and of course the Mahommedans were killed
also in great numbers. The Christians died in vain, for
they could not drive the Saracens out of the Holy Land,
nor even keep Jerusalem long.
Another change that came at this time was that the
Pope became even more powerful than he had been
72 PHILIP L [CH.
before^ because all the Crusaders looked to him as their
head* He was able to get rid of any one who displeased
or resisted him by a command to take the cros^^ as it
was called ; which means to go on a crusade^ where very
likely the crusader would be killed, or if not, he would be
away for many years, and would probably have to spend
BO much money in maMng ready for the expedition that
he would come home poor and weak, and not in a state to
give trouble to the Pope. The Crusades were a change for
the better for the serfs and men who were not nobles.
According to the laws of that time, no one could be both a
soldier and a slave ; so that if a serf became a Crusader
he left off being a slave, and it would have been thought
so wicked to take a man away &om the army and make
him a serf again, that no master dared do it. A serf
sometimes, without going on the Crusade, bought his free-
dom from his master, who was only too glad to find any-
thing to sell
The nobles who were going on a crusade, and wanted
money with which to prepare for their journey, were glad
also to sell some part of their lands to any one who would
give them money in return. The people who had money
to spare were the burghers, as they were called ; that is
men who lived in a bourg or town, but had no estate of
their own, and were not nobles. A law was made that
whoever, with the consent of the king, bought an estate
from a noble, should himself become a noble. Thus a
new set of nobles was formed, richer than the old nobles,
though less powerful, and more inclined to submit to the
king, who had made the law by which they became
nobles.
xni.1 PHILIP L 73
To the king also these changes brought more power
than had belonged to the old kings, as some of the nobles
sold their lands to him instead of to the burghers^ and he
was able to give them away to any one he liked, and.
to put into power those who would be most obedient to
him. Other nobles gave their lands to monasteries, and
the monks and clergy grew rich like so many of their
neighbours.
But all the riches which came to the King, Pope,
burghers, and monasteries, were lost by the nobles, and
this made a great change in the state of the country.
The nobles, who had lived as small kings, each in his own
castle with his serfs around him, and had refused to obey
even the king of the country, became by the end of the
Crusades so weak that they were obliged to be obedient,
while the burghers and other common people had grown
so strong, that the nobles did not dare to ill-treat them as
of old.
At the end of the first Crusade, however, the ngbles
were still powerful, and when they made Godfrey de
Bouillon King of Jerusalem, and had to settle laws by
which he might govern his kingdom, they were made as
like as possible to the laws and customs which were com-
mon in Europe. The barons and even the burghers had
slaves, and the land was held on feudal tenure; this
means that the kings gave land to their chief subjects on
condition of their doing certain things in return for it ; in
particular, of their going out to fight with a certain
number of followers, when the king wanted soldiers.
The men who held the land were called the vassals of
the king, and they in their turn gave part of their land to
74 PHILIP L [CH.
i.
other men, who became their vassals, and made them the
same promises that the barons had made to the king. The
kings of Jerusalem governed well, and kept their vassals
in good order, and the pilgrims fix)m Europe were sur-
prised to see the difference between the order at Jerusalem
and the disorder and confusion of their own countries.
At this time there wefe many brave and good soldiers
who had no land or money, but fought well, and were
much respected by their Mends and feared by their
enemies. Most of these were knights, great numbers of
whom distinguished themselves in the Crusades. The
knights, to begin with, were usually the sons of the great
barons. The land of a baron almost always went at his
death to his eldest son. The younger sons of the chief
were often sent to the castle of some other baron or chief
to be taught all the exercises which it was proper for a
gentleman of those days to understand.
They were first made pages, and learned to wait upon
the lady of the castle. When the page grew older he was
taught to ride and use the sword or spear. He then
became a squire, received a sword and belt from the priest,
and followed his lord to war. He held his master's horse,
carried his armour, guarded his prisoners, or watched his
banner.
At the age of twenty-one, if he had been brave and
faithful as a squire, he was considered fit to be made a
knight This was a serious and important event. The
young man who was to become a knight kept watch in a
chapel all the night before, praying and fasting. In the
morning an address was made to him by a priest, who
explained the duties of a knight — ^to serve his king, to
xiiij PHILIP L 76
defend his country, to punish any one whom he found
doing wrong, to help the weak and oppressed, in particular
to help all women, and to do justice and judgment. He
took an oath to keep the laws ; a new suit of armour was
then put upon him, and he knelt down before his lord,
who dubbed him a knight ; that is, tapped him on the
shoulder with the flat of his sword, saying, Eise up, Sir
John, or Sir James, or whatever his name might be.
After this he was a knight, or in iVench, a chevalier;
meaning a man who rides on horseback, for the common
people always went on foot. His chief business was to
fight ; his chief duty was to keep the oaths which he had
taken when he became a knight ; to defend the weak and
innocent against the strong and cruel, ladies against their
enemies, and all Christians against heathens or Mahom-
medans. In a peaceful and well-ordered country a knight
would not find much to do. English people of the present
day have laws, judges, and policemen to defend the weak
from the strong, the good from the bad, and even a man
on horseback is not allowed to interfere with them ; but
in those times France was not a peaceful or well-ordered
country, and there was plenty to be done by any strong
man who cared for order and justice.
But it was in the Holy Land as Crusaders that the
knights chiefly distinguished themselves. All the bravest
soldiers were knights, kings were always knighted, and if
a man who was not a knight did anything specially brave,
he was often knighted, as a reward, upon the battlefield.
There is a word which was used in those times to express
the qualities which a good knight ought to have, and
which is still used to express the same qualities ; chival-
IS PHILIP L [CH.
: H
rous meant brave, polite^ unselfish, truthful, and the time
of chivalry means the time in which those virtues were
supposed to belong to the best soldiers. Probably, how-
ever, thete were never more than a few knights who
really kept their vows as they should have been kept, and
there were bad as well as good men among them, as in
every other body of people.
XIV.] LOUIS VI. 77
CHAPTEE XIV.
«
Loins VI. (1 108-1 IST).
Philip L was succeeded by his son Louis VI., called
sometimes le Batailleur, the Fighter; sometimes TEveill^,
the Wide-awake. Both these names seem to show that he
was an active, warlike king; and indeed, it was under his
reign that the French kings first came to be considered as
important people, and as decidedly more powerful than
their great vassals. When Louis first became sole king,
on the death of his father, he found his vassals oppressing
the merchants and poor people in their lands, and quite
disobedient to him. He had happily a genius for war,
and was at the head of a body of soldiers made up of
brave young men who were sent to Paris by the great
vassals.
The clergy were friendly to him, and the common
people respected and loved him, because he showed himseK
a lover of justice and a defender of the weak. The great
vassals had taken land close to the walls of Pans, and the
first care of Louis was to drive them back to a respectful
distance, which he did with the help of a small army. He
then attacked and defeated two counts, who were disturbing
the churches of Bheims and of Orleans, and he carried on
many other small wars with his different vassals, in which
78 LOUIS VL [CH.
lie was usually the conqueror, till at last they were all
brought into good order, and made to submit to him.
He did justice upon all wicked men, calling them
before his court, giving them a fair trial, and punishing
them if they were found guilty of ill-treating their neigh-
bours or doing any other harm. Louis went to war with
the Normans,, but they were too strong for him, and he
was obliged to go back to his own kingdom, and spend a
few years of quiet.
But soon after, the King of England and the Emperor
of Germany made a plan together to attack the eastern
side of France, and take one of Louis's chief cities from
him. Louis called upon his vassals to come to his help,
and they, who were by this time accustomed to obey him,
came together in great numbers. Louis brought out the
Oriflamme, the royal standard or flag, which was considered
especially sacred, was usually kept on the altar of the
church at St. Denis, and was used only on great occasions.
It was of flame-red silk, with three poiats on its lower ^ide,
tipped with green.
Louis collected so large an army that the German
emperor did not dare to come into France ; he gave up
his plan, and Louis made peace with the King of England.
Soon after this they had to march against the Duke of
Aquitaine, one of his most powerful vassals, who ruled
over most of the south of Franca
The duke, like so many others of the king's enemies,
submitted when he saw Louis come against him, and their
dispute was settled as the king wished. The next expedi-
tion was against the people of Flanders, some of whom had
murdered their count. The king here put many people to
XIV.] LOUIS VL 79
■■^— ^■^■^■^»'^^^^^^— ^^^■^^■^^— — ^"^^^■^— ^— ^^™^^— — ^ ■ ' ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ I ■■ ■■ ■ ■ ^ I I ■ ■ - ■ m il I , ^M^^^^^— ^—
I
death with horrible cruelty, made a new, count, and went
home again.
Louis was now growing old, and, as was the custom with
the kings of France, he had his eldest son Philip crowned
and made king along with him, to help him in performing
his duties as king, though, as Philip was only fourteen
when he was crowned, he can hardly have been of much
use to his father. But he was a very intelligent and
promising boy, and his father was deeply grieved when
two years afterwards his son met with an accident of
which he died. The young prince was riding through the
streets of Paris when a pig ran between the legs of his
horse, which feU over with the prince upon it, hurting him
so much that he died that night. His younger brother,
Louis, called the Young, was then crowned king with his
father.
Louis lived after this for about six years. Before he
died he arranged a marriage between his son Louis and
the daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine, a young lady who
would have the greater part of the south of France for her
own on the death of her father. The Duke of Aquitaine
proposed the marriage, and Louis was very much pleased
at it, thinking that Aquitaine, which had hitherto obeyed
only its own duke, and treated the French king with very
little respect, would now become a part of the French
kingdom.
The bride and bridegroom were both children, but
they were married at Bordeaux, and the bride, whose name
was Eleanor, was crowned Queen of Franca Eleanor was
to have many adventures, and most of them unpleasant
ones, in the course of her life. She was to be the wife of
80 LOUIS VL , [CH.
two kings, the mother of two, to reign both in France and
England, and to pass some years in prison. The two
fathers of Louis and Eleanor were both ill at the time of
the marriage, and died shortly after. The Duke of Aqui-
taine never returned from a pilgrimage which he had
been making, and Eleanor became mistress of Aquitaine.
Louis VL died at Paris, and his son, the young Louis,
became sole king.
Li these days a king is not usually admired because he
has fought a great number of battles. It is considered so
great a misfortune to have to go to war, that in thinking
of the best and greatest kind of king we usually imagine
one who keeps his country in peace. But in those times
no King of France could have made himself respected or
obeyed without conquering his great vassals, who at the
beginning of his reign were, as I said, almost as powerful
as himself. Louis VI. did conquer many of them, and
even when he failed, as in his war with the Duke of
Normandy, he showed courage and energy which made
his weaker enemies afraid of him. His wars prepared
more peaceful reigns for his son and grandson. From this
time the King of France was not only the chief man in
France, but was respected and looked upon as an im-
portant person Iq all Europe.
Louis was much beloved by all his subjects. He was
just and generous, "and so mirthful that some even
reckoned him a simpleton.'* In his reign lived several
great men, of whom I shall mention two in particular.
One was an abbot named Suger, the dearest friend of
Louis, whose life he wrote, and whose son, Louis VlL, he
helped in the government of the kingdom. The other was
xivj LOUIS VL 81
also an abbot, named Bernard, called afterwards St. Ber-
nard, a great friend of the Pope, and one of the most
eloquent men that ever lived, which means that he could
speak well and persuade his hearers to believe as he did
and to do as he wished. Both Suger and St. Bernard,
however, though they became famous in the reign of Louis
VI., have more to do with the reign of his son, Louis VII.,
and therefore I will leave what more is to be said of
them for another chapter.
Louis VL is usually known as Louis le Gros, or the
Fat, because in his old age he became fat from illness.
The more active names which he won when he was young
give a better idea of his nature.
a
82 LOUIS VII. {LE JEUNE), [CH.
CHAPTER XV.
Louis VII. (1137-1180).
Louis VII. succeeded, or came after, his father Louis VI.
This king was still called Le Jeune (the Young), and it is
the name by which he is known in history. All the kings
of that time had names given them from something special
about their look or behaviour, and not only kings but
private people were distinguished in the same way, as
many people were then without surnames, and a nickname
of that sort was necessary to know apart two Johns, two
Edwards, or any two people with the same Christian name.
The custom was used for the kings, and certainly must
have been necessary for them also, when a fether and son
had the same name and were ruling together.
Louis had been brought up under the care of the Abbot
Suger, of whom I spoke in the last chapter. He had seen
a great deal of monks and Churchmen, and was inclined to
look up to them and obey them in everything, moro than
it is fitting for a king to do. Suger, however, was the best
adviser he could have had, and his reign began welL He and
Eleanor were crowned, and every one was pleased to see the
north and south of France bound together by this marriage.
Louis soon found, however, that the men of Aquitaine
were not yet much inclined to submit to him. He had a
XV.] LOUIS VII, {LE JEUNE), 83
quarrel with them, another with the King of England, and
a third with the Pope, before he had been king for more
than a year or two.
He wished, to persuade one of the nobles, who was his
friend, to marry the sister of his own wife, Eleanor of
Aquitaine, in order that some lands which were hers might
belong to a friend of the king. The difficulty was that the
noble who was to have married this lady had already a
wife to whom he had been married for some years.
Louis persuaded him to send away his wife and marry
Eleanor's sister. Some of the bishops of France who were
friends of the nobleman gave him leave to do this, and it
was considered at that time that the clergy had the power
of settling whether or not a marriage should be broken off,
if either the husband or wife wished it to be so.
The brother of the poor lady who was thus sent away
was a great nobleman called the Count of Champagne, and
he, as may be imagined, was very angry at the way in
which his sister was treated. He called upon the Pope to
take her side, and the Pope, who had already quarrelled
with Louis, as I said before, excommunicated the faithless
husband and the bishops who had given him leave to send
away his wife. Louis attacked the Count of Champagne,
and there was war between them for some months. At
last Louis attacked and took a place called Vitri, which he
burned down. The flames destroyed a church into which
thirteen hundred men, women, and children had gone for
safety. They were all burned, and the king was near
enough to hear their cries. Whether or not he had in-
tended that they should be burned we do not know, but he
afterwards repented deeply of his cruelty, and made a peace
84 LOUIS VIL {LE JEUNE), [CH.
with the Count of Champagne and with the Pope. The
Pope had put France under an interdict, forbidding any
church service to beheld in any city where the king might
be. A new Pope, who was chosen just at this time, on the
death of the other, took off the interdict, and France was
again at peace.
About this time news came to Europe that the kingdom
of Jerusalem, which the Christians had set up in the East,
was in danger. The Turks had watched their time, and
had seen that the barons in the Holy Land were growing
proud and turbulent, disobedient to their king, and not
able to govern the people who should have been their sub-
jects. One of the kings of Jerusalem had been killed by
a fall from his horse, and had left his crown to a child of
twelve years old, called Baldwin III. The Turks made
use of the opportimity, suddenly attacked a large town
named Edessa, killed many of the people who lived in it,
and took away all their riches. The Christians were afraid
that the Mahommedans might go on to other cities, and at
last take from them all the country they had conquered in
the reign of King Philip L They called upon the Chris-
tians of the West to help them.
The Pope was anxious for another Crusade ; his friend
St. Bernard went from one town of France to another,
preaching, as Peter the Hermit had done, of the cruelties
of the Turks, and the misery of the Christians, and calling
upon aU good servants of the Pope to take the cross and
set out for the Holy Land. Louis, who was young and
fond of adventure, was easily persuaded to lead an army
to Jerusalem. The Pope said as before, that the Crusaders
should be forgiven for all their sins, and Louis hoped in
xvj LOUIS VII. {LE JEUNE), 86
this way to gain pardon for burning the church at Vitry,
for which he still felt deep remorse. His faithful adviser
Suger told him that his duty as a king was to stay at home
and manage the affairs of his kingdom, but Louis would
not listen to this ; and he ordered that a great meeting
should be held at a place called Vezelay, where St. Bernard
should address the people, and persuade as many as pos-
sible of them to take the cross.
The meeting was held on Easter Day. Immense
crowds of people gathered together and listened to Ber-
nard's eloquent speech. Before he had gone far a cry rose
of " Crosses ! crosses ! " St. Bernard and the king, who was
with him, gave away as many crosses as they had with
them, and were even obliged to tear up some of their clothes
to find stuff for more. After this Bernard went to Germany,
and though he spoke Latin, so that the Germans could not
understand what he said, his voice and his manner had
such an effect upon them, that the Emperor Conrad and
many of his chief noblemen took the cross at once.
Some of the Crusaders wished Bernard to lead the
Crusade, but he remembered how Peter the Hermit had
failed, and refused to do so. Louis, by the advice of the
bishops and chief noblemen, made Suger regent, or ruler of
the kingdom while he should be away, and set off for the
Holy Land a few months after the meeting of Vezelay ; the
Emperor Conrad having gone on a short time before him.
This Crusade, which seemed to promise great success,
caused the death of many thousands of people, but was of
no use whatever. The Crusaders began to quarrel with
the people of the countries through which they passed
before they were out of Europe. The kings had made
86 LOUIS VIL {LE JEUNE). [ch.
arrangements for having food supplied to their armies,
but there were difficulties about finding enough for all,
and the Crusaders, if thejr were not satisfied, took by force
whatever they wanted from the people. When they
reached Asia, their troubles grew worse. The German
army, which was in front, lost its way, was attacked by
the Turks, was completely defeated, and almost destroyed.
The French king went on more carefully, but was also
obliged to fight the Turks, and lost many of his best
soldiers. The leaders of the army then found that they
did not know their way, and their guides deserted them
from fear of the Turks. The army was much hindered by
the crowds of women and children who had insisted on
going with their husbands and fathers to Jerusalem.
At last a man was found who knew his way through
the country. He was a simple French knight named
Gilbert, and to him was given full power over the whole
army. He guided them safely, without being attacked by
the Turks, to a town called Satalia, where there were
some Christian soldiers, and where they could buy food.
He then went back to his duties as a common soldier, and
nothing more is known of him.
At Satalia the king was persuaded to desert his army
and subjects. He left them to wander on as best they
might on foot to Jerusalem, and himself, with his queen
and some of his chief nobles, embarked in a few ships
which they found thete, and sailed to Antioch, from which
town they travelled easily to Jerusalem. There Louis
went to the chief church, prayed for pardon at the altar of
the Sepulchre, and turned homewards, believing that he
had done a great and good deed.
XV.] LOUIS VIL {LE JEUNE\ 87
The poor pilgrims left at Satalia had been meanwhile
in a state of the greatest misery. They had tried to make
their i^y to Jerusalem, but found it impossible, as they
were without food, and the Turks were in wait for them.
The governor of Satalia would not allow them to come
into the town, and many of them died of hunger ; others
had food given them by their enemies the Turks, who
were moved to pity for them, and treated them more
charitably than did their fellow-Christians. More than
three thousand young men were persuaded by the Turks
to become Mahommedans ; most of the others died at last
from illness or misery, or in battle.
Louis, on his way home, attacked a Turkish town
named Damascus, and besieged it for some weeks, but then
found that he was- not strong enough to take it, and as he
received letters from Suger in France, begging him to
hasten home as fast as possible, he at last left the Holy
Land and sailed for Europe. His subjects in France, who
had heard how he had deserted the Crusaders, and how he
was coming home without having taken any fresh towns
or done anything to help the Christians in the East, were
very angry with him. Some of them had wished to make
his brother king instead of him, and would perhaps have
done so but for the courage of the faithful Suger, who,
with the help of St. Bernard and of letters from the Pope,
had put an end to all disturbance by the time the king
reached France. Louis had left his country with a
hundred and fifty thousand pilgrims ; he brought back
, two or three hundred knights-
I know of only one good thing which came to the
French from this Crusade. As the German army had been
►•^.*j^
88 LOUIS VIL (LE yEUNE). [CH.
almost entirely destroyed, the few soldiers who remained
out of it had joined the army of Louis, and the French
had learned to look upon Louis as a King as great as the
Emperor, and had begun to feel themselves to be a nation
apart from the Germans or any other people.
Louis found his kingdom in a state better than that in
which he had left it. Suger had brought all the affairs of
the country into good order, and had even paid debts of
the king's with money of his own. When Louis came
back Suger left the government altogether, and went to
live privately at his own home, first giving the king some
good advice, which Louis would have done well to follow.
One piece of advice was not to quarrel with his wife
Eleanor. Eleanor seems to have been an active, interfering
woman, and she was probably very much vexed to see her
husband begin so much and perform so little. She used
to say that he was more a monk than a king, and they had
lived an unhappy life together even before the Crusade.
Eleanor went with Louis to Jerusalem, but when they
came back she said that she wished to be separated from
him. Suger wished the king to do all in his power to
prevent this, but Louis gave way, and said he would do
whatever might be settled by a council of the clergy
which was to meet and consider the question. It was
decided that the king and queen should be separated, and
Eleanor left the French court and went to Aquitaine, the
country which had belonged to her, and which, by her
marriage with the French king, had become part of his
kingdom, but was now his no longer. She very soon after
married Henry, Count of Anjou.
This Henry was the grandson of an English king,
xvj LOUIS yiL {LE JEUNE). 89
Henry I. His mother, Matilda, had wished to be queen
of England, and had had a war with her cousin Stephen,
which had ended in an agreement that Stephen should be
King of England while he lived, and that the next king
should be not his own son, but Matilda's son, Henry, who
had now married Eleanor of Aquitane. A year or two
afterwards Stephen died and Henry became King of
England. Eleanor wa§5 thus for the second time the wife
of a king.
Henry was still vassal of the French king for the
duchies and counties which he held in France, Anjou,
Aquitaine, and several others, for he constantly went over
to France and conquered more provinces from the weak
Louis. In later years Louis found a mean way of reveng-
ing himself upon Henry by helping Henry's sons to rebel
against their father. He invited the eldest to the French
court, and encouraged him to resist Henry. It was per-
haps some kind of excuse for him that the young prince
had married his daughter.
Louis married another wife after Eleanor had left him,
and when she died, a third. It was not till he had been
married for thirty years that he at last had a son, at whose
birth the whole French nation was so much delighted
that he was called Dieudonn^ or, given by God. At the
age of fifteen this son Philip was crowned, like so many of
the early French kings, in his father's lifetime. A few
months later Louis VII. died. He had reigned for forty-
three years, and had done very little for his people. An
old writer says, "Louis was pious towards God, mild
to his subjects, full of respect for the clergy, but more
simple than was fitting for a king. He trusted too much
90 LOUIS VII, {LE JEUNE), [CH.
to the advice of his nobles, who cared nothing for honesty
or justice, and so was guilty of more than one serious fault,
in spite of the goodness of his disposition."
Under his reign, however, were seen the good results
of his father's victories. The barons were more obedient
than they had been to former kings, the whole country
was growing more orderly, and the people were being freed
from the tyranny of the nobles.
Louis made agreements with some of the chief towns
that they should not belong to any nobleman or bishop as
they had all done before, but that they should govern
themselves, make laws for themselves, choose their judges
and other oflScers, and have other powers which they had
never before enjoyed. In return, they were to pay the king
sums of money from time to time, and to send men to his
armies, like his great vassals, when he went to war. Such
an arrangement made with a town was called a commune,
and many towns wished to have communes given to them.
After a time the town itself came to be called a commune,
as well as the arrangement making it so. Louis YI. had
given a few communes, but Louis VIL gave many more,
and this was one of the ways in which the kings and the
common people came to be of more importance, and the
nobles of less importance, in France, as both the money
which the communes now paid to the king, and the
powers which the king gave to the communes, had before
belonged to the nobles, so that they were left poorer and
weaker, less able to resist the king or to oppress the
people.
XVI.] PHILIP IL {AUGUSTE). 91
CHAPTER XVI.
Philip .11.(1180-1223).
The next king was Philip II. son of Louis. I have said
how he was named Dieudonn^, and how joyfully his birth
was welcomed by all the people of France. He grew up
a wise and a strong king, though he was not in all respects
a good man, and he did more to make France a great and
powerful country than any of the kings before him had
done. He was only fifteen at the death of his father, but
he already cared more about his own greatness and that of
his country than Louis had ever done.
While he was still quite young, some of his courtiers,
seeing ];dm one day gnawing a green bough and looking
much excited, asked him what he was thinking about.
He answered, " I am wondering whether God will give me
grace to raise France once more to the height she reached
in the days of Charlemagne." He did not succeed in con-
quering such an empire as Charlemagne's, and it was well
for him that he did not, for it could not have lasted for
more than a few years ; but he did what was better, he
made France strong enough to defend herself against Ger-
many and all her other enemies, and made the people who
lived in the different parts of France feel that they all
belonged to the same country, and were subjects of the
same king.
92 PHILIP IL {AUGUSTE). [CH.
The first act of his reign was one which we should now
consider a bad one. He drove all the Jews out of the
country and took away their money, which he kept for
himself. At that time many people thought there was no
harm in ill-treating any one who was not a Christian, and
there were even found men among the clergy of the king-
dom to praise the king for dishonestly taking money which
belonged to his subjects.
He also put to death some other people who, though
not Jews, did not believe in the Christian religion, and
tried to make changes in what was usually taught to the
people. All such men were called heretics ; and the Pope
and many of the clergy taught their hearers that heretics
ought not to be allowed to live, that all true Christians
should be their enemies, that it was right to make war
upon them, and do them any kind of harm, only because
they were heretics ; and, worst of all, that if you made a
promise to a man who was a heretic you were not bound
to keep it. Philip had been brought up by priests, and
from his treatment of his heretic subjects it seems as if
his teachers must have taught him all these cruel and, as
we now think, wicked ideas.
Philip, before he became king, found for himseK a wife,
Isabella, niece of the Count of Flanders. She suited him
well in age, being only thirteen, and the two children were
married and crowned together when Philip became king.
Philip hoped by this marriage to make the Count of Flan-
ders his friend, but they soon quarrelled, and the count,
persuading some of the other counts to join him, raised an
army against Philip. Henry II. of England and his sons
came to the help of Philip, and managed to arrange a peace.
XVI.] PHILIP II. (AUGUSTE), 93
After this there were many quarrels and disputes be-
tween Philip and the Bang and princes of England. These
young princes sometimes attacked Philip, and sdipetimes
joined him in attacking their own father. One of them,
Kichard, who was afterwards King of England, and known
as Coeur-de-Lion, became so great a friend of Philip that
they slept in the same bed, ate at the same table, and even
used the same plate. When the English and French kings
wanted to make an agreement or discuss any question to-
gether, they usually met under a great elm that stood just
on the boundary where the lands of the two kings met.
It was called the elm of conference or discussion. One
day the English arrived there first, and as they sat com-
fortably in the shade, mocked at the French as they saw
them marching through the burning plain in their hot
armour. The French were so angry that they fell upon
the English, drove them away, and then cut down the elm,
Philip " swearing by all the saints of France that there
should never more be held a conference in that placa"
PhUip had to fight with several of his great vassals,
who perhaps thought that he would be easy to conquer
because of his youth ; but he got the better of them all,
and managed either to conquer them or to make them
his friends.
Philip was able to attend to other matters besides war.
He had the chief streets of Paris paved, which was a very
great improvement to the town, as the streets had before
been piled up with mud and dirt of all kinds, so that carts
could hardly pass along them, and there was always a bad
and unwholesome smelL He built colleges, hospitals, and
waterworks, and walls round part of the city to defend it.
94 PHILIP IL {AUGUSTE). [CH.
He also began to build the Louvre, the palace of the kings
of France for many hundred years.
After Philip had been king for about seven years, bad
news came from Jerusalem. The Christians had been
growing weaker and weaker, and the Mahommedans, under
a brave and wise leader named Saladin, had taken from
them many of the chief places which they had won in the
Holy Land, and had at last besieged and taken Jerusalem
itself, and made prisoner the King of Jerusalem and many
other of the chief European princes. When the news
reached Europe, all the knights, barons, and men of war
in the country were eager to go at once to the help of the
Christians in Asia.
Philip and Henry of England, who were at war, made
peace and took the cross. The Emperor of Germany and
a crowd of German princes and barons did the same.
Before they could set out, however, Henry II. died, and
his son Eichard became King of England. Bichard was a
brave warlike prince, and delighted in the idea of fighting
against Saladin; he sold many of his lands to obtain
money for the expedition, and was soon ready to set out.
Philip was less fiery and more prudent. He was sorry to
leave his kingdom, and made careful arrangements as to
how it was to be governed while he was away. His young
wife died just at this time, and he left the chief power to
his mother and uncle. Philip and Bichard made an agree-
ment by which they solemnly promised that they would
always defend one another, and treat one another as brothers
in arms. We shall see how Philip kept this promise.
Richard and Philip set off at the same time, by diflferent
roads, for the Holy Land. They were both, obliged to spend '
\
\
XVI.] PHILIP II. {AUGUSTE), 95
the winter in the Island of Sicily, where they passed the
time in feasts and amusements, and, when they were tired
of gaiety, in quarrelling. In the spring they went on to
the Holy Land and took a city called Acre, but not till after
a long siege. Philip soon grew tired of the Crusade, and
as there seemed to be very little chance of winning back
Jerusalem, and the quarrels between himself and Eichard
grew more and more common, he resolved at last to leave
the Holy Land and to go back to his own kingdom. Before
he did so he took a solemn oath that he would not attack
any of Eichard's lands or subjects, but that he would de-
fend them against all enemies as he would his own town
of Paris. Bichard was angry at his going, but could not
stop him, though he would not himself leave the Holy Land
till he had tried every means of winning back Jerusalem.
When Philip arrived in Europe he went to visit the
Pope, and asked him for leave to break the solemn promise
which he had given not to attack Eichard's lands. It was
thought that if the Pope said a promise might be broken,
there was no harm in breaking it ; but the Pope refused,
and even said that he should excommunicate Philip if he
raised his hand against Eichard's land. Philip, therefore,
went on into France, and as he could not take what belonged
to Eichard, made plans for making himself as strong as
possible in other ways before Eichard should come back
to prevent him.
About a year after this, Eichard found that there was
no use in his staying longer in the Holy Land, for that he
should never be able to take Jerusalem. He made a truce
with Saladin, by which it was settled that the Christians
shoidd be allowed to go to Jerusalem to worship undis-
96 PHILIP IL {AUG US TE), [CH.
turbed, though the town should belong to Saladin. A truce
means a peace which is to last only for a fixed time. This
truce was to last for three years, three months, three weeks,
and three days.
Bichard then turned homewards, and reached Europe
safely ; but as he was travelling through Germany he was
made prisoner by the Archduke of Austria, an old enemy
with whom he had quarrelled during the Crusade. The
Archduke gave him up to the Emperor, who kept him in
prison for some time. Philip was much pleased at Bichard's
imprisonment, and at once attacked Normandy, which
belonged to Eichard, as it had done to his father Henry II.
John, Eichard's brother, who ought to have defended his
country for him, was base enough to join Philip and help
him as much as possible. At last Bichard was set free,
and at once came to Normandy and began to defend his
lands against Philip.
There was a new Pope, named Innocent III., one of the
greatest Popes there has ever been, who commanded Bichard
and Philip to make peace with one another. A truce for
five years was agreed upon ; and Bichard soon after went
to attack the castle of one of his vassals, where he was told
that a great treasure had been found, which the vassal
refused to give up to him, as, according to law, he ought to
have done. While Bichard was one day making arrange-
ments for an attack, an arrow shot from the castle wounded
him, and he died ten days afterwards.
The next King of England and Normandy was his base
and cowardly brother John, and Philip was glad of the
change, thinking that with so weak a man to resist him,
he should be able to have his own way in Normandy.
XVI.] PHI UP IL {AUGUSTE), 97
John had become King of England, but some ]^eople
thought that he was not the right person to be king, be-
cause there still lived the son of one of his elder brothers,
who had died some time before. This son, however, was
quite a child, and as people always wish to have for their
king a man who can think and decide for himseK sooner
than a child, who must be governed by some one else, most
of the English wished to have John sooner than his little
nephew Arthur.
Arthur had been born and brought up in Brittany, one
of the provinces of France dose to Normandy, and the
people of Brittany and of the provinces round were fond
of him, and wished to have him for their king. They
asked Philip to help them and Arthur, and protect them
against John, which Philip was glad to do, as he thought
it would give him a chance of becoming king himself of
some part of the country, and it always vexed him very
much that part of France should belong to the Kings of
England, as Normandy had done ever since the time of
William the Conqueror, who, as you remember, was only
Duke of Normandy to begin with, but had made himself
King of England as well.
The story of Arthur is a sad one ; three years after
this time, John took him prisoner and shut him up in the
Tower of Eouen. There he disappeared; no one ever
knew exactly what had happened to him, but every one
supposed that John had murdered him, and the common
idea was that John had taken him out in a boat on the
Seine, a river dose to the tower of Bouen, thrown him
overboard, and drowned him.
H
98 PHILIP IL {AUGUSTE), [ch.
■ — \
Arthur's barons and vassals called upon Philip to help
them.
He at once marched into Normandy. He attacked a
great castle which Eichard Coeur-de-Iion had built to
prevent any enemy from coming to Eouen, the chief city
of Normandy, and took it after a siege of five months.
When he had taken it, all the chief Norman towns, Bouen
among the others, opened their gates to him. It would
have been of no use for them to resist, for John did not care
to help them. He stayed for some time in Eouen, amusing
himself with feasting, gambling, drinking, and lying in bed
till dinner-time after his great banquets, and if any one
spoke to him of Philip and of the towns which Philip was
taking from him, he answered, " Let him do as he likes. I
shall be able to take back in a day all that he takes from
me." When Philip came near to Eouen, John was fright-
ened, and fled away into England, leaving all Normandy
at Philip's mercy.
Thus the province of Normandy was conquered by the
French king, and it has belonged to the kings of France
ever since, and had no more dukes of its own, Brittany
and the other provinces of France which had belonged to
John, all gave themselves up to Philip. Philip called
upon John to appear before a court of French nobles, that
the question whether he had murdered Arthur might be
fairly tried. John thought it wiser not to trust himself
in France. The question was then considered without
him, and Philip and his chief lords decided that John had
been guilty of murder, and that all his land in France
should be taken away from him.
As Philip had already taken all this land, it did not
XVI.] PHILIP IL (A UGUSTE), 99
make much difference to John what might be the reasons
he gave for doing so ; but Philip was glad to find a good
excuse for what he had done, though, had John been the
best king that ever reigned, Philip would probably have
stiU managed to make himself master of N^ormandy, if the
English king had not been strong enough to prevent it.
There is so much to be said about Philip's reign that
the rest must be left for a fresh chapter.
He was king for forty-three years, and of these only
twenty-three had passed at the time of Arthur's death.
r^^'rwt")<f ( 4 ti.
100 PHILIP 11. {A UGUSTE\ [CH.
CHAPTEE XVII.
Philip II. — is^GvdvMMS).
1180-1223.
You may perhaps have known already a good deal of what
I said in the last chapter, and I may have seemed in it to be
writing the history of England, as well as that of France.
It is true that it is impossible to give an account of what
happened in one oountry without mentioning often what
was happening at the same time in the countries near at
hand. The more rich and strong and powerful* a country
becomes, the more it has to do with its neighbours.
While it is weak and poor, its/ governors have enough to
do to manage their own affairs, and their great hope is
that their neighbours will not take any notice of them, as
they know they could not resist any attack that might be
made upon them. But as they grow strong, they begin to
wish to be stronger still, to conquer the countries near
them, to give their opinion about aU that their neighbours
do, to prevent anything being done bv any other king
which they think might be dangerous to them or their
subjects ; and so, the farther we go on with the history of
any country, the more we have to learn about what was
happening in other countries at the same time.
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xvnj PHILIP IL {AUGUSTE). IM
This is especially true about France. England is, as
you know, an island, and that has prevented it &om being
so much concerned with what went on on the Continent
as it otherwise would have been. Its history has been
less mixed up with that of other nations than the history
of any other equally important country.
France being close to Germany, to Spain, to Belgium,
not far from Italy, and nearer to England than any other
country on the Continent, has had to do with the histories
of all these nations; and any one who really knew the
history of France well would know a good deal of what
had happened in almost all the other countries of Europe.
But there is a particular reason why, in the reigns of
Eichard and John the history of France and the history of
England should have a great deal to do with each other.
These two English kings and their father, Henry II., were
Frenchmen rather than Englishmen. Henry II. had been
Duke of Anjou before he was King of England, and he
and his sons spoke French, and followed French laws and
customs. Eichard I. was King of England for nine years
and a half, and he did not pass above six months of that
time in England, owing to the Crusaders and to his wars
witk Philip in Normandy. He had been brought up in
France, cared more about his French than his English
dominions, and considered Eouen the capital of his king-
dom. After Philip had taken Normandy, the kings of
England left X)flf considering themselves Norman and
French, took London' for their chief town, and soon
became as much Englishmen as the greater number of
their subjects.
Philip was usually a very good friend of the clergy
102 PHILIP IL {A UGUSTE): [CH.
■ 1. 1. » - - - ■
and of the Pope. He was the sort of king they admired.
He was prudent, fond of peace rather than war, respectful
to th,e clergy, and cruel to heretics, which, sad to say, they
thought a virtue. But he had one quarrel with the Pope,
and as had happened with some of the other kings of
France, the quarrel was about his wife. He had married
a daughter of the Danish king, named Ingeburga, who
seemed to every one gentle, good, and beautiful. The
morning after her marriage, while she was being crowned
queen, Philip looked at her, turned pale, and shuddered.
He afterwards explained that he had taken a dislike to
her, and could not have her for his wife. He wished to
send^her back to Denmark, but she in great distress
refused to go, and appealed to the Pope, that is said that
she wished the Pope to settle the question of what was to
become of her.
Philip meanwhile persuaded some of the French clergy
to say that the marriage was broken off, but the Pope took
the side of Ingeburga, commanded the king to take her
back, and when he refused, laid the kingdom under an
interdict, that is forbade that any churches should be
open, or any services held throughout the country. No
marriages might be performed, no funeral services read,
no bells rung, no one could go into/the churches.
Jt was a horrible thing, that because the Pope was
angry with the king, thousands of poor people who had
done no harm, and knew nothing of the quarrel, should be
shut out from what was the only comfort which some of
them had in their hard lives. An excommunication
would have punished the king himself, and so far would
not have been unjust. But this interdict on the whole
XVII.] PHILIP IL {AUGUSTE\ 103
king^tem was imjust and cruel^ punishing thousands of
people for the fault of one* The Pope hoped that the
king would find his subjects growing so angry with him
1$at he would be obliged to submit at last, and he was
right. PMip ^ve way, took back his wife, and though it
is to be feared that he never treated her very kindly, she
lived with him as his wife from that time. The interdict
of course was taken ofiF.
At this time there was a great and terrible war in the
south of France, in which the J:ing himseK did not take
much part, but which ended at last in his grandson be-
coming master of the large |>rovince of Toulouse at the
south-east comer of the kingdom. The count who ruled
over- this province was the richest and most powerful ruler
in France. He lived like a king, and had never been con-
quered- by the kings of France. His subjects were very
different from the people of the other parts of France ; they
were all rich like their count, the cities seemed prosperous
and the citizens industrious ; the nobles wrote poetry, had
gay leasts, and enjoyed themselves in every possible way.
But they were a cruel and violent people, and when angry
revenged themselves without pity for any harm done to
them.
Many of the people of this land were heretics ; which
means, as I have already explained, people who either did
not believe in the Christian religion at all, or who, though
Christians, did not agree with all that was taught by the
Pope. No one knows exactly what was believed by the
people who lived in Toulouse, or Languedoc, as it was
usually called at this time ; or rather, so many different
things were believed by different people, that it is impos-
104 PHILIP IL {AUGUSTE), [CH.
--- --r -r r- - -■- - ii - - - ' ' '
sible to find out any set of opinions whichi was believed
by all of them, but very few were obedient servants of the
Pope.
Pope Innocent sent some monks to Languedoc to try
and^make the people believe rightly, but in vain. The
monks preached, but no one listened, and at last one of the
Pope's messengers was murdered. Upon this Innocent
excommunicated Eaymond, the Count of Toulouse, and
then called upon all faithful Christians to go and make
war upon him, saying that a war with Eaymond would be
as much a crusade as a war with the Saracens in the Holy
Xand, and. promising that the sins of the crusaders should
be forgiven. Count Eaymond was frightened, forsook his
subjects, and was forced by the Pope himself to lead an
army against them ; but he afterwards went back to them,
and did what he could to help them.
Soldiers from all the provinces of France joined in a
large army to attack Languedoc. They attacked and took
a town called Beziers, which they burned, and murdered
every one in it. They then took -prisoner tlje Viscount of
Beziers, the chief leader of the Languedocians, a brave
youngs man only twenty-four years old, whom they per-
suade(J to come to their camp by a promise that he should
be allowed to go away again in safety. They thought there
was no need to keep this promise made to a heretic, and
threw him into prison, where he died soon after. Many
people believed him to have been poisoned.
The great lords of the south then submitted. The towns
that had been conquered were given to one of the French
lords, Simon, Count of Montfort, who had been one of the
leaders of the crusade, and the crusading army left the
xviL] PHILIP 11. {AUGUSTE), 105
country, Eaymond tried to make peace with the Pope,
but in vain. The Pop^ would give him peace only upon
such shameful conditions that Raymond found it impossible
to accept them.
Two^ears after the end of the firsts there was a second
crusade against Languedoc. Several towns were taken by
the crusaders, and the inhabitants either put to death by
the soldiers, or solemnly burned as heretics. Simon de
Moi^tfort was the leader of tihe crusadejs, and showed
himself to be a skilful and brave soldier, and a kind and
thoughtful general to his army ; but to the people of Lan-
guedoc a n^st cruel and treacherous enemy. It is worth
while to remember that. he was J;he father of the De Mont-
fort who ^as the leader of the people against Henry III,
as we read in English history.
Coimt Baymond and his son, also called Raymond,
came to the he^ of the unhappy Languedocians, but as
they brought no army, they wfere not able to do them much
good. The King of Arragon, one of the provinces of Spain,
came with a large army across the Pyrenees to help the
men of the south, but in his first greatbattle his army was
defeated, and he himself was killed. v..
After this the Languedocians were too much discou-
raged to go on fighting ; they submitted to the counts and
princes ficom the north of France, who divided the country
between them and reigned over it. The archbishops and
bishops found themselves lands and bishoprics, and Simon
de Montfort was made Count of Toulouse. The country
was almost deserted ; it was covered with empty castles,
ruins black with flames, and towns half destroyed. No
one was allowed to live in the country who would not say
106 PHILIP IL (AUGUSTE). [CH.
^ ^^ ^
he was a CathoKc, that is a man who beKeves what is
taught by the Pope.
But this kind of peace did not last long. Two years
later Baymond and his son came again to the country, and
made themselves masters of Toulouse, the chief city of
Languedoc, while Simon de Montfortwas away in another
part of the province. Montfort came quickly back and
besieged Toulouse for nine months. At the end of that
time, as he was watching an attack on the town, he was
hit by a stone thrown from the walls — ^it is said by a woman
— and was killed on th^ spot. ^
All the men of the south at once rose up against the
crusaders, and Simon's son tried in vain to take Toulouse.
From that time the crusaders began gradually to be driven
out fix)m their towns abd castles by the Languedocians
under the young Eaymond, who was now Eaymond VII.,
Count of Toulouse, as the old count had died. The Pope
tried to stir up another crusade, but in vain. The son of
De Montfort was still called Count of Toulouse by the
Frendh, but had less and less power every day. The young
Eaymond was called Coimt of Toulouse by his Mends, and
he gained what De Montfort lost. The Languedocians
weref' however, defeated at last, and made subject like the
rest of France to the French king ; but this did not happen
tUl twelve years later.
This crusade, called from the name of a town in Lan-
guedoc the Albigensian Crusade, lasted ten years, and was
one of the most cruel and unjust wars of which we read
inhistoiy.
Philip IL had himself taken no part in the war, although
towards its end he had allowed his eldest son to go to the
xviL] PHILIP IL {A UGUSTE). 107
help of the De Montforts. He was growing old, and did
not care to conquer any fresh lands. But before he died
he won a victory which delighted the French more than
anything else which had happened in his reign. There
was a war going on in Germany between two men, each
of whom wished to be emperor. One of them, whose
name was Otho, was helped by King John, and against
him Philip fought a battle, called the battle of Bouvines,
which he won with some difficulty, as there were English
soldiers fighting with Otho, whom it was very hard to beat.
They were not driven backwards till both their generals
had been taken prisoners.
The soldiers sent by the communes of France fought
for the first time at this battle, and did good service. This
was the first real French victory, and after gaining it,
Philip was the most powerful and most famous prince in
Christendom.
Towards the end of Philip's reign there had been
troubles in England, where the people hated King John
so much that they asked Louis, Philip's eldest son, to
come and be their king instead of him. Louis went to
England, marched to London, and promised solemnly to
keep the good laws of the coimtry. Some of the people
took his side, others that of John ; but soon after Louis
had arrived in England, John died of a fever, and his son
Henry, a child of ten years old, became king. The lords
and barons had no quarrel with Henry, and they were
beginning to dislike Louis, who did not keep his promises
to them, but gave everything to his French followers.
They all turned against Louis ; the city of London alone
remained faithful to him. A great battle was fought at
108 PHILIP IL {AUGUSTE). [ch.
Lincoln, and the French army was defeated. Louis then
went back to France, and Henry HI. became King of
England. A few years after Philip fell ill of a fever, and
he soon felt that he should not recover. He made his will
and died at a place called * Mantes, as he was tdking a
journey for his health. He was fifty-eight years old, and
had been king for forty-three years. He is often spoken
of as Philip Auguste, a name which was given him because
he was bom in August.
xviiij LOUIS VIIL {LE LION), 109
CHAPTER XVIII.
Louis VIIL (1223-1226).
Louis VIIL, the son of Philip Augustus, was a yery
different kind of man &om his father, but he had so short
a reign that he was not able to do much either of harm or
good to his country. He was weak in body and in mind,
and easily persuaded by the people about him, particularly
by the priests, to do whatever they wished. He had an
active, ambitious wife named Blanche of Castille, and it
was she who had persuaded him to go to England when
he was invited by the barons to try to make himseK king
there, as I told you in the last chapter. He was the first
Eong of Prance since Hugh Capet who had not been
crowned king while his father was still alive. This shows
that people had by this time become so much accustomed
to the son of a king succeeding him — ^that is, becoming king
after him — ^that there was no more need for a father to see
his son crowned before his death.
The people of France had great rejoicings when Louis
became king, which was a sign that they were becoming
loyal, or fond and proud of their kings. The citizens of
Paris gave him a beautiful cup, musicians played in the
streets of Paris, minstrels sang songs, and a certain
number of serfs were made free men by their lords.
Many prisoners, too, were let out of prison.
110 LOUIS VIII. {LE LION). [CH.
The minstrels who sang in the streets were the poets
of that time. They could not, as a poet does in these
days, make poems into a book, and sell it to any one who
likes to buy it ; for at that time there were no books, and
very few people who could write or read. The poets
wandered about from one town to another, or from one
baron's castle to another, singing their songs for any one
who passed to hear. Their poetry was always sung, and
was often an account of the great deeds of the king or the
nobles, or stories about the heroes of old days, in particular
of Charlemagne, who was the favourite hero of these poems,
as King Arthur of the Eound Table was of the English
minstrels at about the same time. The poets were called
trouvferes in the north, troubadours in the south. The
troubadours sang songs about beautiful ladies, and brave
knights who wanted to have them for their wives, while
the trouvferes sang of wars and adventures.
Louis VIII. had two wars, one with the Bang of Eng-
land, and another with Count Baymond of Toulouse. In
the war with the English king he was successful. He
took away some of the few French provinces which still
belonged to Henry, and left him only one in the south of
France. His war with the Coimt of Toulouse did not end
so well for him. I have said how there were two Counts
of Toulouse at the same time, one Baymond, the son of
the old Eaymond, and one the son of Simon de Montfort.
De Montfort's son found that he was not strong enough to
conquer the country for himself; so he gave up all that
he had already conquered to King Louis, and said he
might have all the rest of Baymond's land if he could
conquer it. The Pope was also an enemy to Baymond,
xviiij LOUIS VIIL {LE LION). Ill
and tried to persuade Louis to fight with him. At last
Louis marched with an immense army into Languedoc,
and besieged a town called Avignon,
This town was very well defended, with high towers,
a double wall round it, large ditches full of water ; plenty
of food inside, and brave men to defend it. The poor
people of the country roimd about had been made so poor
and miserable by all the wars that had gone on in their
province for so many years, that they had no heart left
to go on fighting. They yielded to the King of France,
though they all loved Baymond in their hearts, and were
rejoiced at every success that he won. Baymond had laid
waste most of the country round Avignon, hoping that if
Louis could find no food for his army, he would be obliged
to go away ; and the French soldiers fell ill in great num-
bers from want of food and from the unhealthiness of the
country. But the men of Avignon gave way first. After
a siege of three months, the town was taken.
Louis then turned towards France, hoping to come
back the next year and finish the war by taking Toulouse,
the chief town of Languedoc, but he had caught the fever
of which so many of his soldiers had died, and a few days
after he had left Avignon, he died himself, making his
nobles promise that his Uttle son should be king after him,
and that his wife Blanche should take care of the country
while his son was a child.
112 LOUIS IX. {SAINT LOUIS). (ch.
CHAPTEE XIX.
Louis IX (1226-1270).
•
The son of Louis YIII. was Louis IX., afterwards called
Saint Louis, in memory of his goodness and of all he did
for France. He was twelve years old when he became
king, and his mother, Blanche of Castillo, managed all the
business of the country for him tiU he was old enough to
govern for himsell She gave him good tutors, and brought
him up to be both a wise and a good man.
She had many troubles and difficulties while he was
still young in resisting the chief nobles of the country, who
thought this would be a good opportunity for winning back
some of the power that they had lost in the two last reigns.
Some of them refused to be present when the king was
crowned, and afterwards went so fa^ as to tiy to take Louis
prisoner and have him brought up by one of his uncles
who was their friend, instead of by Blanche. But Blanche
managed to make the more powerful nobles herj friends,
and the people stood by her and their young king, so that
she was able to resist all her enemies.
She had another great friend called the Legate, a name
given to the ambassadors or messengers of the Pope, from
a Latin word meaning messenger. The Pope, who liked to
t \
XIX.] LOUIS IX. {SAINT LOUIS). 113
know alDtout all that was going on in all the countries of
Europe, often sent a Legate to live at the court of any king
with whom he was friendly, to send him accounts of what
was going on, to give the king good advice, and in parti-
cular to see that he did not ill-treat any clergyman, or take
for himseK any of the power which it was thought in those
times ought to belong to the Pope. Louis was brought up
chiefly by Churchmen, and hfe was taught to be respectful
and obedient to the Pope, and to do as much as he could
to please him and to make the Church great and powerful.
On the whole, it was at that time a good thing that the
Pope should have a good deal of power, as he was more
likely to use it well than the fierce ignorant barons, or the
people of the towns, who were nearly as fierce, and quite
as ignorant about many things. But it sometimes hap-
pened that the Churchmen wanted something which would
have been bad for the other subjects of Louis, and have
brought the country into trouble, and then Louis knew
the true duty of a king well enough to refuse to give it
to theuL
But Louis himself sometimes made mistakes, though
he was one of the best men who ever were kings of France,
and some of his mistakes brought great trouble and diffi-
culty upon his coimtry.
All the time that Louis was a child, the barons con-
tinued to make disturbances in the country. They asked
Henry III. of England to come and help them, but though
he brought an army into France and marched about from
one place to another, he did nothing important. When
Louis became a man he made peace with aU his enemies.
He gave lands to some, and bought their lands from others
114 LOUIS IX. (SAINT LOUIS). ' [CH.
^ ^ ♦
who were willing to part horn them in return for a sum of
money.
He made an arrangement with Eaymond, the Count
of Toulouse, that his daughter should marry one of the
brothers of Louis, and that all his lands should go to this
brother when Eaymond died.
Louis loved peace and justice. He always settled a
question fairly, without considering whether he himseK
should gain or lose by what he decided. Other kings and
princes knew this so well, that they sometimes asked him
to decide disputes in other coimtries with which he had
nothing to do ; but it was in France, and among his own
subjects, that his virtues were best known. He cared for
aU his subjects, the poor as well as the rich, which may
not seem wonderful in these days when many rich people
think a great deal about the safety and comfort of the poor,
but which was very unusual then, especially for a king.
The rich and strong were apt in those times to consider the
poor as things rather than people, as animals useful for
digging the ground and doing other hard work, rather than
as men with feelings and thoughts like themselves.
Louis used to sit under a great oak tree at a place near
Paris called Vincennes, and any one, however poor or
shabby, who had a complaint to make, might come and
make it before the king, who inquired into the matter, and
settled it as he thought right and just. He would give
advice also to those who wished for it, and help to any
honest person in distress.
But though the king loved his people, he did not fully
understand what was his duty to them, or at least he did
not think about it as we do at this day. It is now con-
xixj
LOUIS IX, {SAINT LOUIS),
115
sidered that the great duty of a king is to think of what
will be good for his subjects. Louis thought less of their
good than of pleasing God by doing something which he
thought right, but which it was no part of his duty as king
to do, and which he could not do without neglecting his
people. ^
Europe had been attacked by a fierce band of savages,
called Tartars ; they came from mountains in the north of
Asia, and are described by the people of the Holy Land
(the place where they first showed themselves) as some-
thing very wild and terrible. The Saracens, who were first
attacked, sent messengers to the French court asking for
help against the Tartars, and saying that they would cer-
tainly attack Europe if they were not stopped in Asia.
The messengers described them as men with enormous
heads, eating the raw skins of animals, and even of men.
A writer of those times says, speaking of the Tartars,
" They are skilful in drawing the bow, and good sailors ;
they carry with them leather boats, in which they pass the
rivers ; they speak a language that no other people under-
stand ; their horses feed on leaves and the bark of trees,
and are so swift that they can go as far, in one day, as
the horses of Europe can in three." These Tartars took
several towns and provinces in 'Asia, and at last made
themselves masters of Judea ; took Jerusalem, and mur-
dered aU the Christians who could not escape.
Even before Louis heard this news, he had determined
that he would at some time or other go upon a Crusade.
He had once had an illness so severe that he at one time
seemed to be dead. One of the ladies of his court thought
that he was dead, another declared that he was stiU alive.
116 LOUIS IX. {SAINT LOUIS), [CH.
While they were disputing Louis opened his eyes and
asked for the cross ; they put it on his bed, and from that
time he recovered. The cross on his bed was a sign that
he considered himself a Crusader, and would at some time
go on a Crusade. Many of his brothers and great lords
had taken the cross at the same time.
When they heard of the Tartars having conquered
Jerusalem, they determined to set out at once, and when
Louis had been king for just twenty years, the Crusade
began. The king determined this time to go to Egypt, a
country on the north side of Africa, and to fight the Sara-
cens there, instead of in the Holy Land. He felt no fears
about the safety of his kingdom, for he left his mother
there to govern for him, as she had done for so many years
while he was a child. On his way to Egypt he stopped at
the Island of Cyprus, where stores of food, wine, money, and
such other things as his army would be likely to want, had
been made ready for him. We read in a book about King
Louis, of which I wiU speak presently, that the barrels of
wine, set up in piles in the fields, looked from a little dis-
tance like great houses, and heaps of grain of different
kinds had been piled up so high as to look like mountains.
The king had with him between two and three thousand
knights, and each knightf had brought with him a larger or
smaller body of men, so that this piles of food must have
been a welcome sight. Leaving Cj^rus, the French army
went on to Eg3rpt, and there they took the first town that
came in their way, Damietta ; for the Saracen army, which
was waiting on the shore, tried in vain to prevent them
from landing.
But having settled themselves at Damietta, there was a
XIX.] LOUIS IX. {SAINT LOUIS). .117
great difficulty to know what to do next. As usual in the
Crusades, no one knew the way about the country. The
Crusaders stayed near Damietta for many weeks; when
they tried to go farther, they were attacked by the Sara-
cens. Many of them, among others one of the brothers .of
the king, were killed. After this there were several days
of fighting. The Saracens had a machine which threw out
what was called Greek fire ; the Christians could never
find out how it was made, but it looked like a blazing
baU of fire as it flew through the air, and did great hurt to
the soldiers when it came to the ground amongst them.
The Crusaders fell ill from bad food and the heat of the
weather ; and at last, when they were once more attacked
by the Saracens, they could resist no longer. Louis and
great numbers of the chief men were taken prisoners,
and the common people were, for the most part, put to
death.
The king and his chief nobles had been kept alive in
order that the Saracens might receive a ransom from
them. A ransom means the sum of money which a prisoner
pays in order to be set free. In those days a person who
took a prisoner was allowed to have, for his own, whatever
ransom the prisoner gave ; indeed, he might fix the sum
himself, and refuse to let the man go till he had paid it.
The King of the Saracens, who was called not king, but
Sultan, fixed a very large sum for the ransom of Louis and
his nobles. Louis at once agreed to pay it, and a truce
for ten years was agreed upon.
Still the king would not go home, though many of his
barons advised him to do so ; he thought of all his
soldiers who had been made prisoners, and of the other
118 LOUIS IX, {SAINT LOUIS), [CH.
Christians who were prisoners in towns belonging to the
Saracens in Asia. He knew that if he went back to
Europe, there would be no hope for them of ever being
set free, so he went to fight in Asia, where he had no
special success ; but though he never succeeded in reach-
ing Jerusalem, he was able, by making friends with some
of the Saracens, to persuade them to give up to him
several hundred Christians whom they were keeping
prisoners, and a number of Christian children who had
been taken from their friends when they were very young,
and were being brought up as Mahommedans. All this
time Queen Blanche was governing France, and governing
it wisely and well. So long as she was there, the king
felt no fear for the safety of his kingdom, but when at last
news reached him that she was dead, he left the Holy
Land at once and set sail for France. He arrived safely,
but sad at not having seen Jerusalem after all his troubles,
^nd at thinking of all the confusion and unhappiness
which the Crusade had brought upon so many of his
subjects.
Louis spent sixteen years in his country, ruling on
the whole wisely and well. Peace and justice were still
the two things which he chiefly valued. When he wanted
for any reason to be master of land belonging to another
prince, instead of going to war with him and trying to
take it by force, or thinking of some excuse for saying it
was his already, and trying to get it by a kind of trick,
Louis IX. would say honestly that he wanted it, and offer
some other piece of land in exchange. He did this with
the King of England, Henry III. Henry had always
complained that some land had been taken from him
XIX.] LOUIS IX. {SAINT LOUIS), 119
unjustly by the grandfather of Louis IX. Louis offered
him some other provinces instead of those which he had
lost. Henry took them and was quite satisfied, but the
nobles of France were vexed at their king having parted
with the provinces, and asked him why he had done it,
as there had been no real reason why Henry should have
them rather than he. Louis said that he knew the King
of England had no right to the land, but that he had given
it in order that there might be love and friendship between
himself and Henry. This would have been a good answer
if Louis had made Henry some present which belonged
only to himself, but he did not consider what the people
of these provinces would think at being made subjects of
King Henry. Henry governed very badly, and his sub-
jects were not happy, so that the people who had lived
happily under Louis IX. were very angry at having to live
under a king whom they liked so much less weU. They
were so angry that when, after his death, the Pope said
that he was to be considered a saint, to be called St. Louis,
and to have one day in the year kept in honour of him,
the people of these provinces would never take any notice
of his day, nor pay him honour of any kind.
No doubt King Louis did wrong about this, and I think
that he acted foolishly in going on the Crusade which did
really no good, for though he set free some Christian
prisoners, yet many more Christians were killed in the
battles he fought ; I think there can be no doubt that he
would have done his duty better by staying at home, and
attending to his own work of governing France, unless he
had found it necessary to march against the Tartars ; who,
as it was, might have attacked his country while he was
120 LOUIS IX, {SAINT LOUIS). [CH.
away, and have done a great deal of harm there, if they
had not been stopped by the Emperor of Grermany. But
on the whole Louis governed better than almost any other
king who has reigned in France. He improved the laws ;
he made arrangements about money, how it was to be made
and how much each piece of money was to be worth ; he
encouraged people to make beautiful buildings of all
kinds, particularly churches ; he made many plans by
which bad people might be found out and punished, and
good people be protected. One of his plans was to send
some of his servants, whom he knew he could trust, to
different parts of the country to see what went on there,
and to bring him back word. One of the things he was
very anxious to prevent, was a plan people had in those
days for finding out whether a man had or had not done
any bad thing which some one else thought he might
have done.
In these days there would be what is called a trial.
The man who was supposed to have done wrong would
be brought before a man called a judge, whose duty it is
to know what are the laws of the country, and any one
who knew anything about what, had happened would be
obliged to come and say what he knew, and the judge
would ask questions of all the people who had seen what
reaUy did happen. If some people said one thing, and some
another, twelve men who are sitting by on purpose, and who
had listened to all that was said, would settle among them-
selves which story they thought was really true, and would
teU the judge, and he would say how the man was to be
punished if it were settled that he had done wrong, and
would say he was to be set free and go away to his own
XIX.] LOUIS IX. {SAINT LOUIS). 121
home again if it were settled that he had done no harm.
This is a very long business, but it is likely that the truth
will be found out at last. In the time of King Louis there
was a much shorter plan. If one man said another had
done wrong, and the second man said it was not true, the
two fought together, and whichever won was considered
to have been right. This was a quick but a very unjust
way of settling the question. It made people who could
fight well able to say what they liked about their weaker
neighbours, and to get them punished for what they had
never done. King Louis did a great deal to prevent this
habit, and to make people who had disputes come before
a judge and have a trial, something like what I have
described. He also prevented the barons from making
war upon one another when any two of them had a quarrel;
which they still did very often at the beginning of his
reign.
But aU this time Louis was meaning to go, whenever
it was possible, on another Crusade. . Nothing could turn
him away from this, and at liast, when he was fifby-three
years old, though he was so ill that he could hardly stand,
he called all his barons together, and took the cross in
spite of aU that the wisest of them could say to prevent
him. He sailed three years afterwards, and landed in
Africa ; but before he had had time for anything further,
he was seized with a severe illness, and died at the age of
fifty-six, having been king for forty-four years.
Most of what we know about St. Louis is told us by
one of his barons, who was his faithful friend and servjmt
all through his life, and who went with him on the first
Crusade. His name was the Baron de JoinvUle, and when
I
i
122 LOUIS IX, {SAINT LOUIS). [en.
you are old enough to read his book, you will find many
stories- about the things which that good and great king
did and said, which I have not room to tell here, but which
will amuse and interest all my readers very much.
XX.] PHILIP III {LE HARDI). 123
CHAPTEE XX.
Philip III. (1270-1286).
When Louis IX. died in Africa, he had with him his eldest
son Philip, to whom he gave much good advice during his
last illness. As soon as he was dead Philip went back to
Europe, taking with him the bodies of five of his relations,
who had all died during the few weeks that they had been
in Egjrpt. These were, his father, his wife, his little baby,
his uncle, and his aunt. It was a gloomy end to the
Crusade ; and not only to that Crusade, but to all those
that there had been before, for there never was another.
After this time people became too busy with their own
affairs to care to go away and fight in a country with which
they had really nothing to do.
Philip was not a wise or a great man, though he seems
to have had a good disposition, and his reign was a dull,
gloomy one — not a particularly happy time for France.
The barons, who had been growing less and less powerful
for a long time, as I told you, now became less important
than ever, because the king began ta say that he had a
right to make any one whom he pleased a nobleman. He
also made a law that men who were not noblemen might
hold fiefs — ^that is, be his vassals and masters of an estate
— so the old nobles found that quite common people, whom
I -
I
I
124 PHILIP IIL {LE HARDI\ [CH.
they thought much less good than themselves, were begin-
ning to be masters of estates as they were, and also that
these common people, whether they had estates or not,
were made noblemen like themselves. As the kings grew
stronger, they took away more and more of the power
which had belonged to their barons. The barons no longer
held courts where they behaved as little kings ; they gave
up their feasts and entertainments ; and this made the
whole country quiet and dulL The people of the towns
were gradually getting more power ; but they were not
yet very strong, so that everything was in a mournful,
dull state, which lasted all through this reign.
Philip has been called " Le Hardi," meaning the Bold ;
but aU the time he was king he did only one thing which
could be called bold, and most people would rather have
called it hasty or rash. There was a dispute in Spain
between an uncle and his young nephews as to who should
inherit the throne. The nephews were too young to care
themselves about reigning, but their mother was very
anxious that one of her children should be king. She was
the sister of Philip of France, and she asked him to help her.
Philip at once called together an army, and himself
set off at the head of it to attack his sister's enemy ; but
almost before he had reached Spain he found that he had
come without making enough preparation. He had no food
left, and not enough arms for his soldiers. It was of no
use for him to go farther, and he was glad to hear that one
of his generals, who had been fighting in Spain in another
quarrel, had just made peace with the king whom Philip
was going to attack. This gave him an excuse for not
going farther, and his subjects did not know how hasty
XX.] PHILIP IIL {LE HARDI), 126
and foolish he had been ; they only saw how quickly he
r
had marched to the help of his sister, and called him, as I
said, " The Bold."
The uncle of Philip who had died in the Holy Land,
was the prince who had become master of all the land
belonging to Count Eaymond of Toulouse, in Languedoc.
He left no child, and Languedoc passed on to Philip, and
was ever afterwards a regular part of the French kingdom.
Another great baron called the Count of Champagne died
at about the same time, leaving an only daughter ; and
Philip gained leave from the Pope to marry her to one of
his sons, so that France became larger by two provinces
under the reign of this weak and unimportant king.
Philip had a barber named Peter la Brosse, of whom
he was very fond. He used to talk to this man about all
his most important aflfairs, and take his advice as to every-
thing he did. The great barons and advisers of the king
were often vexed when they had just settled with the king
that some particular thing for which they wished should
be done, to find that Philip had talked the matter over
with La Brosse and changed his mind about it completely.
La Brosse also persuaded the king to give honours to him
and to his relations ; his brother-in-law was made a bishop,
his children were married to rich lords and ladies. At last
the people who had to do with the king found that the
best plan was to get La Brosse on their side to begin with,
as what he wished was sure to be done ; so every one tried
to please him, and he became one of the most powerful
men in the country.
)jj( But at last La Brosse quarrelled with the queen.
Philip's first wife had died in the Holy Land, leaving four
126 PHILIP III, (LE HARDI), [CH.
. ' ■ r ....
sons. Philip had married a second wife, a wise and beau-
tiful princess, named Marie of Brabant. She also had^
children ; and after she had been married two years one of
her stepsons, the eldest son of the king, died suddenly.
Some people thought he had been poisoned ; and La
Brosse, who wanted to make the king dislike the queen,
tried to persuade him that she had done this wicked deed,
and would try to kill all her other stepsons in order that
her own spn might be king.
No one believed this horrible story, and there was no
reason for beUeving it. Instead of doubting his wife,
Philip began to doubt the honesty of La Brosse. But he
still went on treating him as a great person and his best
friend for two years longer. At the end of that time a
messenger who was carrying some private letters to La
Brosse fell iU at a monastery by the way, and died there,
giving the letters he was carrying to the monks of the abbey,
and making them promise him on his deathbed to give
them to nobody but the King of France. This the monks
promised and performed. Philip read the letters secretly
with a few trusted barons, and no one else ever knew
what had been in them ; but Pierre la Brosse was suddenly
carried away from his home and shut up in a strong tower,
where, after a few days, he was brought before four or five
barons, condemned to die, and hanged the next morning.
No one ever knew what he had done, and the people of
Prance thought that, whatever it was, he ought to have
had a fair trial, and were angry at his deatL
It is said that the king w^very unwilling to agree to
it, and that he was only with some difficulty persuaded to
it by the barons. A king should never be persuaded by
XX.] PHILIP III {LE HARDI\ Vll
1 \
any one to do what is forbidden by the laws of the country ;
and it is forbidden by law, both in England and France, to
put a man to death without openly saying why you are
doing so, and giving him an opportunity of defending him-
self, whatever he may have done.
Philip had an uncle who was a very different kind of
man from himself. His name was Charles of Anjoii. He
was fierce and active ; fond of war, power, and adventure ;
and always looking about for one or other of these amuse-
ments. He was king of an island named Sicily, which is
to the south of Italy ; and he treated the people so badly
that they hated him and all the French, and made up
their minds to get rid of them all out of the island as soon
as possible. They had made friends with one of the
Spanish kings, who promised to help them, and all was
ready for a rising up against the French, when one day a
quarrel rose between a French soldier and a Sicilian who
were walking in a public garden one Sunday when the
vesper or evening bells were just ringing. AU the Sicilians
gathered round to help their countryman, and the French
soldiers to help the Frenchman, till there was a general
fight all through the city. Then the Sicilians rose up in
other part« of the island and attacked all the French
soldiers who lived near them, till there was scarcely one
Frenchman left alive in the whole of Sicily, Charles of
Anjou, who was not in the island at the time, did all in
his power to make himself master of it once more, hut
he never could do so, and died without having suc-
ceeded.
This rising up of the Sicilians against the French is
called the Sicilian Vespeiis, because it happened, as I said,
128 , PHILIP III {LE HARDiy [CH.
just at vesper-tide, or evening time, and it was a terrible
thing for the French people.
A sad accident happened at about this time in Philip's
own family. His youngest brother had been made a
knight, and a tournament was to be held in his honour. A
tournament was an amusement which was coming very-
much into fashion at this time. It was a kind of sham-
fight, in which knights rode against one another, attacked
each other with swords and spears that were blunt, so as
not to do any real harm, and tried to knock one another
off their horses. The young prince, who had so lately
become a knight, joined in the tournament, and was so
much hurt by the blows he received, and confused by the
heat and dust and the weight of his armour, that he be-
came an idiot, and never recovered his senses. However,
he found a young lady to marry him, and his descendants
for some hundred years were called Bourbons, and some
of them came to be kings at last, as we shall see.
I told you that one of the Spanish kings had' helped ;
the Sicilians in their rising up against Charles of Anjou.
There were several different provinces in Spain, and each
province had a king of its own. One of the most important
was called Arragon, and the friend of the Sicilians was
Peter, King of Arragon. The Pope at this time was the
friend of Charles of Anjou, and was very angry with Peter
of Arragon for having helped Charles's subjects to fight
against him. He declared that Peter should be king no
longer, and told Philip that he might have the kingdom of
Arragon for one of his sons if he could conquer it from
Peter. Philip at once set off across the Pyrenees to attack
Arragon. He besieged a town named Gerona, and there
XX.] PHIUP IIL [LE HARDI), 129
he had to stay for two months and a half, for the people
resisted him most bravely ; but at last, after many of his
men had died from heat and iUness, the town gave itself
up to him. He and his army were too much worn out to
go any farther ; they turned towards home, but on their
way back through the Pyrenees PhiKp fell ill, and he died
at the first French town they reached. A week after his
death Gerona was taken back from the French by Peter of
Arragon.
130 PHILIP IV. {LE BEL). [CH.
CHAPTER XXL
Philip IV. (1286-1314).
The son of Philip III. was Philip IV., called Le Bel be-
cause he was very handsome. He was never Uked by the
people, for which they had many and good reasons.
When he became king, he was only seventeen years old,
but he never behaved like a young man. He did not care
for pleasures of any sort, for hunting, or tournaments, or
the company of his barons and courtiers ; but he liked
to be shut up all day with lawyers, who were inventing
ways to give to the kings of France more power than they
had already, and to get Philip plenty of money from his
subjects, which they did without at all considering how
unpleasant it might be for the subjects to do without
their riches.
He had a wife of whom horrible stories are told. One
was how she used to sit up in a tower in Paris, looking
out upon the people who went by, and when she saw any-
one whose looks she liked, she called to them to come in
and pay her a visit ; and if they came, she made them stay
till night, and then took them to the top of her tower, and
pushed them into the river which flowed underneath, and
drowned them. Of course this story is not true. It is a
legend or wild tale told about a particular castle near the
river Seine in Paris; and it is not always told about the same
XXI.] PHILIP IV, {LE BEL). 131
person. Sometimes it is about one of the wives of PhiKp's
sons ; but it shows how the people hated all this family, and
were ready to listen to horrible stories about any of them.
A few years after Philip became king there was a war
between him and Edward III. of England. I have told
you already of many wars in France, but till now they
have nearly all, except the Crusades, been wars of the
same kind ; that is, wars between a king and one of his
great vassals. Even when Philip Augustus fought with
Henry, King of England, and his sons, it was a war be-
tween a sovereign and his vassals, because Henry and his
sons, though they were kings of England and had no one
over them there, were vassals of the French king for the
land which they had in France. In the reign of Philip
rV. the English kings were still vassals for one or two
French provinces, but they were now completely English-
men, and as kings of England had grown so strong, that
when they fought, the war was between one king and
another, one country and another, between England and
France, instead of between a sovereign and his vassal.
The sovereign was the name of the king, duke, or count
who gave the land on conditions to the vassal, as I have
explained before. Sovereign has now come to mean merely
the chief ruler of a country.
The sailors of Edward III. and the people who lived
on the sea-coast of France often met and quarrelled.
Edward had some land of his own in France, the part
which St. Louis had given to his father, that there might
be peace and friendship between them. His subjects
helped the English seamen against Philip's subjects, and
at last the quarrel became a regular war, in which, how-
132 PHILIP IV. (LE BEL). [CH.
ever, neither of the kings took much part. Philip was
busy with his lawyers in Paris, and Edward was fighting
the Welsh and Scotch, and had no time to think about his
afifairs in France. Philip was much more cunning than
Edward. He watched his opportunity, and managed in
rather a deceitful way to make himself master of Aquitaine,
the part of France which had belonged to the English king,
and to keep it, which Edward allowed him to do, being too
much taken up with other matters to care much about it.
Philip had many disputes with the Pope of those days,
Boniface VIII. The story of their quarrels is not a yqij
amusing one, and I will not tell it here. It is enough to
know that the beginning of the quarrel was about the ques-
tion whether or not the clergy of France should pay taxes
to the king, as the rest of the people did. Taxes are the
money which people pay to their rulers, to be spent in
the expenses of governing the country. It had always
been a question whether or not the clergy in the country
should pay taxes. Many of them were very rich, and the
kings said that as the clergy had as much good as other
people from the soldiers, the sailors, and the judges of
the countries, they ought to be willing to take their share
in paying for it. The Pope always said that the clergy in
all the different countries of Europe were his subjects, and
were to think more of his commands than of the laws
of the king in whose country they lived. He was very
angry, therefore, at the king wishing to make them pay
taxes. The quarrel began about this question, and it
lasted all through the lifetime of the Pope. The king was
the conqueror at last.
Philip was a very severe king. He made all his sub-
XXI.] PHILIP IV. {LE BEL). 133
jects do whatever he liked, without allowing them to say
whether they wished for anything dififerent Among
other things, he made them pay him great quantities of
money. It is said that by doing this, he made himself as
odious to his people as Louis IX. had been dear to them.
He made laws about everything, and every one who broke
his laws was to pay him a fine. Some of these were wise
and useful laws, as those in which were arranged who
should judge the people, and where they should meet
together for any one who had been ill-treated to complain
of it, and arrangements about communes and the people
who lived in them.
But others of much less importance were much more
unpleasant to the people. Philip made laws as to how
many suits of clothes each person might have — a prince
so many, a count or a duke so many, a knight so many.
The greatest number allowed was four ; the ladies were to
have no more than their husbands. Boys were to have
two suits of clothes a year, but King Philip seems to have
made no law for girls. He also settled how many dishes
people were to have for dinner, and how their food was to
be prepared. The people naturally disliked extremely
having these rules, and having to pay for breaking them.
But there were some of his subjects to whom PhUip
behaved with especial cruelty, and among these were the
Jews. This unfortunate nation has no country of its own ;
the Jews wander from one country to another, each parti-
ctdar family settling itself in any place where it sees an
opportunity of making money, and setting up a comfort-
able home. The Jews settled in France were among the
richest of Philip's subjects, for they understood more about
134 PHILIP IV, (LE BEL). [cH.
how to do business, and how to get together a great deal
of money, than any other people of that time. Philip
protected them when first he became king, and when they
had had time to grow rich, turned upon them, seized all
their goods, and then drove them all out of the country.
The unhappy Jews had before this been treated in the
same way by Edward I. of England.
Philip had many wars with the Count of Flanders.
Flanders was the country which is now Belgium, at the
north-east comer of France. It was at that time part of
France, but like so many other provinces, was ruled by a
count of its own, who was always ready to resist the king.
When Edward of England wanted to find some one to help
him against Philip, he made friends with the Count of
Flanders, who gave him much useful help against the
King of France. When Philip made peace with Edward,
he still went on fighting with Guy of Flanders, and when
he found that he could not conquer him in open war, he
persuaded Guy by false promises to come to his court with
his eldest sons and some of his chief lords, and to give up
to him the keys of his chief city, and of all the fortresses
that were still his ; for Philip had already taken away
many of them. The promise was that if Guy would do
this, he should afterwards be sent back to Flanders with
all his old powers, and be disturbed no more ; but as soon
as Philip had all he wanted, Guy with his sons and great
lords was thrown into prison, and Philip took Flanders
as his own, and sent one of his officers to rule it for him.
Guy had not ruled his people well, and they had no
great love for him. Philip made them many promises of
good government, and they made no resistance to him, but
*WB(l»E^F»P^IiPi*i"^i^HWi»W[IW
XXI.] PHILIP IV, {LE BEL), 135
received him splendidly when he went* to visit Flanders
in the same ^ year in which Guy had been made prisoner.
The people came out of the cities dressed in their best
clothes, which were made of very fine and beautifully
coloured cloth, and made processions and feasts of aU
kinds to do honour to King Philip. The French lords
were vexed to see so many common people wearing such
rich clothes, and Philip's wife, Jane of Navarre, said, " Till
now I thought I was the only queen, but here I see more
than six hundred others." The friendship between Philip
and the Flemings did not last long. The French governor
set over the people ill-treated them till they rose against
him, and turned him out of the city where he lived, and
formed themselves into an army with which to march
against Philip. One of Guy's sons, who had been fighting
in distant countries, came home when he heard of the
rising up in Flanders, to put himself at the head of it.
The Flemish had made up a large army, and in a battle at
a place called Gourtrai in Flanders, defeated the French
soldiers as they had scarcely ever been defeated before.
Great numbers of noblemen were killed, others fled from
the field ; the Flemings went to their tents and took from
them great quantities of arms and rich clothes. It was
thought very disgraceful that so many nobles should have
been defeated by common citizens, such as most of the
soldiers in the Flemish army were.
After this Philip could never make himself master in
Flanders again. Two years later, after two more great
battles, he found that they would never submit to him
peaceably, and at last, tired of fighting, he agreed to set
free the sons of Guy, whom he had been keeping prisoners,
136 PHILIP IV. {LE BEL). [CH.
\
I ■ I *■ — — ■ - I - — ■ I ■■»■■■■■ I I I » II ■■ ■ ■ I I ■ ■■ I ■ I ■ I I ■ I ■ I ■ ^^»^^^^^— — ^M^^i^— ^i^PI^^^—^— — ^
and to allow the eldest of them to be county as his father
had been. The old Count Guy had died in France.
This war was important, because it was owing partly
to it that Philip spent so much money, and had to find so
many ways of getting more, which was very unpleasant to
his subjects ; though, even allowing for all he had to
spend, it is difficult to find out what became of all the
immense sums of money he received in one way or another
from his people. He certainly seemed to be always con-
trivtag new Ly. of maUag Lsm rich, ^ yet .l^y.
Pope Boniface, who, as I said before, had a quarrel with
Philip as to whether or not the clergy were to pay taxes,
died just at the time when another quarrel was going on
fiercely between them. The question this time was whether
the Pope had any power over the king ; whether the king
was in all things to do as he pleased, or whether he was, in
certain cases, to obey the Pope. The Pope wished the
king to submit to him in questions about clergymen and
churches and monasteries, and all that had to do with
Church services, and settling who was to be archbishop,
bishop, or abbot, and what the people were to be taught.
Many of the kings said the Pope ought to have no power
in their kingdoms, and Philip IV. was one of these, so long
as the Pope displeased him, but if the Pope did as he
wished, Philip told all his subjects to obey him. The Pope
who came after Boniface was a friend of Philip's, and did
whatever he wished.
Philip, after all he had taken from his subjects, had
still left some of them very rich, and there was one body
of men from whom he had never yet taken anything.
XXI.] PHILIP IV. (L£ BEL). 137
■ I ■■■»■ Mm 1——^^ ■■■■ ^^m^m^ , ■■■ i i ■ I .i !■■ , , , ^■i „ , , „
These were the Templars. The first Templars were a few
brave knights who joined together in the Holy Land into
a little army to fight for the Temple at Jerusalem. They
were very brave and virtuous, so that other men admired
them, and wished to become Templars also, and by degrees
the " Order," as it was called, grew larger and larger. An
Order means a body of men with a particular set of rules
as to how they are to behave. The Order of Templars
increased, till, in the time of Philip le Bel, there were as
many as 15,000 of them in different parts of the world.
While the Crusades lasted, they spent most of their time
fighting in the Holy Land, and when the Crusades were at
an end the Templars came back to Europe, and went to
live in the different countries to which they belonged.
They were partly monks as weU as soldiers ; they
made a vow to remain unmarried, and to give up their
lives to fighting in the East, and to protecting the Chris-
tians there, and to follow certain rules which were made
for them by St. Bernard, who, as you have abeady heard,
lived in the reign of Louis VIL They did not obey any
king or the Pope. One among them was chosen by the
others to be their chief, and was called the Grand Master,
and him they all obeyed. When the Order grew large
there was a Grand Master in each country.
PhiUp could not bear that any of his subjects should
refuse to obey him in everything, and he wished to be
master of the riches of the Templars, which were very
great, so he determined to destroy tho Order with the help
of the Pope, who was afraid to refuse him anything. On
a particular day all the Templars in Eraaice were thrown
into prison. The king sent out a notice, sajring tiiey had
138 PHILIP IV, {LE BEL), [CH.
been put in prison because they were horribly wicked, and
gave an account of some of the bad things which he
supposed them to have done and to believe. He said that,
they were not really Christians, that they wished the
Saracens to conquer Europe, that they did all kinds of
wicked things in secret, of which nobody knew. It was
very hard to tell whether what the king said was true or
not. Nobody is sure even now whether the Templars
had become wicked, and had done bad things in secret.
Many of the knights said that the king's story was entirely
untrue ; others said that it was partly true, and some of
them, who had been kept in prison a long time, and then
tortured to make them say what the king wished, said that
his story was true. But many of these, when they came
out of prison, unsaid all they had said, declaring they would
have done anything to escape from the horrible tortures.
Whatever the Templars had done, they could hardly
have deserved what happened to them. Many of them
were kept in prison for their lives, and several of them
were burned alive. The Grand Master of France was
burned with one of his chief friends. All the wealth that
had belonged to them was taken by Philip.
Of aU the bad things done by Philip IV., this is what
I think the worst. He died very soon after the death of
the Grand Master and his friend. Pope Clement died at
about the same time. Philip died at Fontainebleau, the
place where he had been bom, giving much wise and good
advice to his eldest son, who was to be king after him, and
who, it might be feared, would be at least as likely to
follow the example of his father's life as the good advice
which Philip gave only on his deathbed.
XXII.] LOUIS X. {LE MUTINY 139
CHAPTER XXII.
Louis X. (1314-1316).
Philip IV. left three sons, of whom the eldest was made
king at his death. This young man, whose name was Louis,
was twenty-five years old when he became king ; but he was
as thoughtless and fond of amusement as a child, and he
had gained the name of Hutin, which means disorder or
noise, and was given him because he seemed to take a
pleasure in quarrelling and making disturbances. Bfe
thought very little of his duties as King of France, and
left all the business of governing the kingdom to his uncle,
Charles of Valois.
The people who had hated PhUip were rejoiced to see
a new king on the throne; the nobles and Charles of
Valois, Philip's brother, at once set to work to undo as
much as they could of what Philip had done. They took
away the chief places in the Government from the men to
whom Philip had given them, and two of the chief ofl&cers
were thrown into prison and tortured ; that is, they were
hurt very much with horrible machines made on purpose,
to force them to say they had done the bad things of which
their enemies accused them.
The chief Minister of all had his head cut off, without
being allowed to say anything to defend himself. His
enemies said that this man had stolen money, and kept it
140 LOUIS X, {LE HUTIN), [ch.
for himself, when it had been given to him to spend for
the good of the country, and that it was his fault that
Philip had made the people pay so many taxes. This may
have been true, but King Louis did not think he deserved
to be put to death for this, and settled to exile him, that is,
to send him out of France, and make him live in another
country. This he thought would be punishment enough ;
but Charles of Valois told his nephew that the Minister
was not only a thief, but that he had made a plan to kill
the king and his brothers by sorcery.
Many people at that time believed that there were men
and women who had the power of making things happen ;
causing storms to rise, people to fall ill, die, or get well,
bringing happiness to their friends, and misfortune to their
enemies ; and other powers of the same sort. Men who
were supposed to be able to do such things were called
sorcerers, and women witches. It was considered a very
wicked thing to be either a sorcerer or a witch, and there
was a law which said that they were to be put to death
wherever they were found.
Charles of Valois had heard that a sorcerer had made
wax figures of himself, of the king, and of some of their
relations, and had put them in front of a fire. The idea
was that, as the wax images slowly melted away, the
persons of whom the images were made would fall ill and
waste away too, and soon die. It was supposed that the
Minister's wife had employed the sorcerer to make these
figures. When Louis heard of it he said that the Minister
deserved death. The Minister had his head cut off, his wife
was put into prison ; the man supposed to be the sorcerer
was hanged, and his wife, who was supposed to be a witch.
XXII.] LOUIS X, {LE HUTIN), 141
and to have helped him, was burned. It is sad to see
what foolish things people wiU beUeve, and how cruel men
often become when they are frightened.
Many of the chief men in the different provinces of
France now asked the king to make arrangements for their
being better governed than they had been before. The
king and his uncle, who wanted to make friends with them,
agreed, and made them many promises ; some about their
money not being taken away from them as it had been by
Philip le Bel, and others about giving the nobles back
some of the power which had been taken from them by
Saint Louis and his son and grandson.
But Louis was in great want of money himself, and
was anxious to find out some way of getting some which
would not make his subjects angry. Louis had a wife who
had behaved so badly, that she had for some time been
shut up in prison. He wished to have another wife, and
as he could not marry again while his first wife was alive,
he had her smothered between two mattresses, and then
asked the sister of the King of Hungary, whose name
was Clemence, to marry him. She agreed, and he was
very much pleased, as she was rich, and he hoped she
would bring him a great quantity of money, of which he
was in much want, for he had not enough to be crowned
with proper grandeur. But as Clemence was on her way
to France, she met with a great storm, in which her ship
was wrecked, and she lost all her jewels, her fine dresses,
and the money she was bringing to Louis. Th^y had to
be married quietly without much show, and afterwards
they were crowned together with as little expense as
possible.
142 LOUIS X. {LE HUTIN). [CH.
But in spite of being poor, Louis went on with the war
which his father had begun against Flanders. He called
upon the towns of France to send him soldiers for the war;
but very few came, for the French obeyed only strong
kings, and Louis was a weak one. However, by making
promises to the towns, he managed to gather together a
small army, with which he marched into Flanders. The
weather that year was unusually bad. There was such
hard rain, that the mud came up to the knees of the men
and horses, and it was impossible to bring provisions from
the country round to the army. The soldiers fell ill, and
Louis saw that there was no use in going farther. After
having been in Flanders for a month or two, he turned back,
burnt his tents, and led his army into France again. All
through the autumn the bad weather lasted ; the harvests
were spoiled, and the people were in great distress. After
the famine there came illnesses of different kinds, caused
by bad food and want ; and it is said that in the northern
part of France a third part of the people died either of
disease or hunger.
A year later the reign of Louis came to an end. His
death was caused by his thoughtlessness and folly. He
had made himself very hot with playing at tennis, and
without waiting to grow cool, he went down into a cold
vault, or place underground, and drank great quantities of
fresh wina This brought on a fever of which he died.
He left only one child, a little girl ; and there was a
great question whether some one should govern for her
till she grew up, and then she be queen, or whether she
should be left out altogether because she was a girl, and
one of the brothers of Louis be king. Since the time of
XXII.] LOUIS X. {LE MUTINY 143
Hugh Capet, it had never happened before that the King
of France had died without leaving a son, so some new
rule had to be made on purpose. It was settled at last
that France should never be without a king, that no queen
should ever rule there, and that therefore, if a king left
only daughters, his brother, or his nearest male relation,
should come after him. The reason for this was that a
queen would probably marry some foreign prince, and
that he might want to rule over France, as well as over
his own kingdom. This rule that no woman may reign in
a country is called the Salic Law. I need not tell you
that there is no Salic Law in England. Perhaps it is
because England is an island, separated from all the
countries of the Continent^ that we have been able to
enjoy the good of having queens, without being conquered
by the countries from which their husbands came. Louis
X. died in 1316, and was succeeded by his next brother.
144 PHILIP V. {LE LONG). [CH.
CHAPTEE XXIII.
Philip V. (1316-1322).
The name of Louis X/s next brother was PhiUp, and he
was called Philip 1$ Long, or the Tall, because of his great
height. His reign was almost as short as his brother's
had been, and brought no comfort to the people of France,
who had lost most of their money in the last two reigns,
and who were to be still more ill-treated by the new king.
Philip's first act was to call together what were called
the States-General. This was a body of men, something
like our Parliament, which met together from time to time
to give the king advice or help in governing the country.
This was the third time of its meeting ; the first two
had been in the reign of Philip's father, Philip le Bel.
These meetings were made up of clergymen, of nobles,
and of some of the chief men in the different towns of the
country. When the king wished the States-General to
meet, he sent out word a short time beforehand, and the
nobles met together, and chose out some of their number
to go for them to the meeting ; for there would not have
been space or time for every one to go. The clergy did
the same, and the townspeople the same.
Every one could usually guess what the king was going
to say, or to ask from his States-General, and the clergy,
1
1
xxiiij PHILIP V. {LE^ONG), 145
the barons, and the townspeople, who were not going to
the meeting, told those who were going, who were called
deputies, what they had better say to the king, and what
they should ask from him ; for the States-General never
met without the deputies making a complaint to the king
of everything that waa going wrong in the country, and
asking him to set their affairs right for them. They made^
lists of their complaints, which they gave to the king
before the meeting broke up, and which he always pro-
mised to consider, though he very often took no further
notice of them.
The first thing that happened when the deputies were
all met together was that the king asked them whatever
he wished to ask He sometimes told them that he was
going to war, and asked them to help him against some of
his enemies ; or he wished to know what they thought of
some new law which he had made ; or wanted them to
collect money for him. Three men were chosen by the
rest, one from each of the three orders, that is, the order of
the clergy, the order of the nobles, and the order of the
townspeople or burghers, who each made a speech in
answer. At this time they usually agreed to whatever
the king wished, for unless he expected them to agree
with him, he did not call them together, and they could
meet only when he called them.
After they had made their speeches and given in their
list of complaints, the king sent back the deputies to their
own homes. These meetings, though something like our
Parliaments, were different from them in many important
ways, which I cannot explain here ; but the great differ-
ence of all was that in England the nobles and the common
L
146 PHILIP F. KLE LONG), [CH.
•
people usually took the same side, and so were strong
enough to prevent the king from having his own way
in everything; while in France they were enemies, and
neither was strong enough alone to resist the king, so that
he had a great deal of power, and did what he liked.
Philip wished the States-General to say solemnly that
he was the right person to be king, and that no woman
should ever be Queen of France. They did so, and swore
to obey him as king, and his son after him. Philip's
brother and the other great men of the State also agreed
to his being king, and his reign began happily.
It was a short and not an important reign. After
Philip had been king for about two years, there was a
great rising up of the peasants in the south of France.
There were still at different times some ideas of another
Crusade, and these poor people wished to set off to conquer
the Holy Land for themselves. At first they went quietly
through the country, asking peaceably for bread at the
doors of the churches ; but as more and more people
joined them, chiefly shepherds and labourers out of the
fields, their numbers grew too large for them to be satis-
fied in this way. They grew hungry, and took whatever
they could find. Then the people of the towns rose up
against them, and brought them before the magistrates,
who hanged several of thenu After this they broke open
the prisons and made disturbances in all the countries
through which they passed. In particular, they killed all
the Jews whom they could find. At last, one of the king's
officers brought an army against them, and shut them up
in the town from which they had meant to set sail for the
East, refusing to let them come back into the country
xxiii.] PHILIP V. {LE LONG), 147
they had left. Many of them were killed or taken
prisoners ; some died of illness, others escaped, and went
quietly to their own homes. These poor people were
called pastoureaux, or pasturers, many of them being
shepherds.
There was another disturbance in France in this
reign, caused by a set of people more miserable and unfor-
tunate than the poor peasants ; these were the lepers.
Leprosy was a very bad illness caught in the East by some
of the Crusaders, which spread through all Europe. It
could not be cured, so the people who were taken ill with
it were at once sent to houses made on purpose, where all
the lepers lived apart from all healtiiy people, so that the
illness might spread as little as possible. There arose an
idea in the reign of Philip V. that the lepers had made a
plan to try and poison all the healthy people in France,
either to give them the leprosy also, or to make them die
some other way. It was said that they put poison into
springs of water, so that all the stream flowing from the
• spring might be poisoned, and that every one who used
the water might die.
There is no reason to think that the lepers ever tried
to do anything so wicked, or that they could have done it
if they had tried. No one ever found a poisoned stream,
but people became so much frightened at the idea, that
the king ordered aU lepers to be at once imprisoned, and
a great number of them were burned without any one
having shown that they had done anything in the least
wrong. Others were imprisoned for life in their hospitals.
They had before this been allowed to wander about the
country by day looking for food. They were obliged to
148 PHILIP V. {LE LONG). [CH.
keep at a distance from any one who passed hj, and to
give them warning by their cries that they were lepers,
and might give the illness to any one who came near.
Kind people often put down food and other gifts on
the ground, which the lepers took up when they were gone
away. After this law of PhiKp's they were treated as
prisoners, and never allowed to go out into the country.
At the same time a great number of Jews were burned
alive ; they had money which their enemies wished to
steal from them^ and the Christians were glad of a reason
for satisfying the hatred they all felt for the unfortunate
Jews.
Very soon after these cruel executions Philip V. was
taken ill and died from a fever. His only son had been
dead for some years ; like his brother Louis he left only
girls ; but there was still a third brother to succeed him.
■^^POT^^9VHH^^^^^F^WH^«w>^g^^>vs,^^>-i^^wai^^ ■ V ■ ■ I ■■ lai • III!
XXIV.] CHARLES IV. {LE BEL). 149
CHAPTEE XXIV.
Chaelbs IV. (1322-1328).
Philip V. had left a brother named Charles, who was the
n6xt king, and is known as Charles le Bel, or the Hand-
some. He reigned for six years, the same time as his
brother Philip. Louis X. had reigned for two years. The
reigns of all the sons added together did not take np half
so many years as the reign of their father, Philip IV., and
he had reigned a much shorter time than Queen Victoria
has now done. A boy or girl bom in the last year of
Philip IV.'s reign would have lived in the reigns of five
kings by the time he or she was fifteen. This has not
happened at any other time in French history, or at any
time in English history, between the reigns of William the
Conqueror and of Queen Victoria. Three times over, in the
course of French history, three brothers have come to be
kings one after another, and each time they have come at
the end of their family ; none of them have left descendants.
Louis X., Philip V., and Charles IV., were the first set of
brothers ; we shall come to the others in due time.
Charles IV. had an unimportant reign, and very little
is known about him, or the times in which he lived. It
seems that at that time there was only one Frenchman
who wrote history, and he wrote only about other countries,
150 CHARLES IV, {L^ BEL), [CH.
> I
and scarcely at all about France. Many events happened
in England, in Germany, and in Italy, but Charles IV. took
very little part in them. In England a very weak and bad
man, Edward II., was king, and his wife, Isabella, was the
sister of Charles IV.
Isabella hated her husband, and was always writing
to Charles to say how unkind Edward was to her, and to
ask for help against him. In one letter she says that
her husband treats her "more like a servant than like
his wife." Charles was, no doubt, glad of an excuse for
taking away some of the land which still belonged to the
English kings in France. This land was in the south
part of the country, in the province called Aquitaine.
Charles made himself master of several of the towns in
Aquitaine, and when Edward complained, he took no
notice. At last Edward determined to send his wife Isa-
bella to the French court, hoping that she would be able
to persuade Charles to be at peace with him ; but Isabella,
far from trying to make peace between her husband and
her brother, did all she could to persuade Charles to give
her an army with which to go back and attack England.
When Edward sent for his wife to come back, she
answered that she did not feel safe in England, and would
rather stay in France. Charles gave her soldiers and
money, and she found in Flanders a brave soldier, one of
the sons of the Count, who promised to march at the head
of her little army. When everything was ready she went
back to England and began a war with her husband. AU
the people of England took her side. Edward tried to
escape out of the country, but was always driven back by
bad weather. He was at last taken prisoner by Isabella's
XXIV.] CHARLES IK {LE BEL). 151
Mends, kept in prison for some months, and then most
cruelly put to death. Isabella made her young son king
under the name of Edward III., who became so well known
both in England and France. Edward II. was a weak and
bad man; his wife must also have been a very bad woman,
and a good deal like her brothers, the three Kings of
Franca
Charles found both the lepers and the Jews in great
distress when he came ^ to the throne, owing to the cruel
treatment of his brother Philip. He ordered that food
should be given to the lepers who were shut up in their
hospitals, or in deserted houses in viUages. Though he
still said they were never to come out themselves, their
neighbours were allowed to collect food for them if they
chose, and take it to their houses. Had it not been for
this, all the lepers in France would probably have been
starved. It was a custom for a new king, when he came
to the throne, to grant favours to as many as possible of
his subjects, by giving them something for which they
wished, or that would please them. The only favour
which Charles would grant to the lepers was, as we have
seen, that some one should bring them enough food to
prevent them from dying of hunger.
Most of the Jews were shut up in prison, and Philip
V. had ordered them to pay him large sums of money.
Charles gave orders that the Jews should be allowed to
come out of their prison by day, in order to collect this
money for him ; and that when they had collected it all,
they should be allowed to leave the country. These were
the favours he showed the Jews.
During the reign of Charles IV., there was at one time
152 CHARLES IV. {LE BEL), [CH.
an idea of going on another Crusada Charles received
some money for the ptupose from the Pop^ and got to-
gether a little army of men ; he chose for their leader one
of his noblemen, who had been put in prison a short time
before for hanging one of his vassals and drowning another.
There was no opportunity for finding ont what kind of a
general the prisoner would have made (which perhaps
was as well for his soldiers), for the Crusade never came
to pass.
There is so little to be read or found out about Charles
IV., that we do not even know of what illness he died.
It was long and it was painful, and that is aU we are
told. He died at the age of thirty-four. He had had two
sons, both of whom were dead. He left behind him only
a baby girl. Charles IV. was the last of the Capets, the
line of kings of which Hugh Capet was the first; there
now began a new line of kings with a different name,
though they also were descended from Hugh Capet, as
cousins may have different names, although the same
person is the grandfather of both.
f
xxv.l PHILIP VL 163
GHAPTEE XXV.
Philip VI. (1328-1350).
As Charles IV. had left neither brother nor son, there was
some difficulty in settling who should be king after him,
and several of his relations laid claim to be the rightful
king, among others Edward III., King of England, Charles's
nephew. But the person who was chosen at last was the
first cousin of the three last kings, Philip, called Philip of
Valois, and known as Philip VL He was a Frenchman,
which made the people of France like him better than
Edward or any of the other foreigners who wished to be
their king. His reign, however, was not a happy time for
his subjects, as we shall see.
Very soon after Philip had become king, he went with
the Count of Flanders to help him against the people of
Flanders, who had risen up against their Count, and re-
fused to obey him any longer, so that he had come for help
to the French king. The Flemings were shut up by the
French army in one of their towns, which was built on the
top of a hiU, where it was very difficult for the French to
reach them. They thought themselyes quite safe, and
wrote mocking rhymes about the King of France, refusing
to come down and fight him, as he invited them to do.
Philip then began to burn up everything in the country
154 PHILIP VL [CH.
I ■ I ■■■■-■■■■'■■ — ll ■ - ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ . ^ ■■■ - I I ■■ ■ M^^M^^I ■■ ■ 1^ ■■ ■■■■ »M ■ ■ M ■■
round about, and this sight made the Flemings so angry
that they came down from the mount one night, when
they hoped the French soldiers would not be keeping
watch, and attacked Philip's camp. They almost succeeded
in taking him prisoner, but he managed to escape, called
his soldiers together, and not only drove back the Flemings,
but almost destroyed their army, killing many thousands
of them, so that they could resist him no longer. He
made himseK master of all the country, and gave it over
to his friend the Count, telling him to keep it quiet and
in good order for the future.
The French were much pleased at having won this^
victory, and Philip went back to Paris, and began to make
his court as splendid as possible, and to live a gay life
there with all his nobles round him. Several, of his rela-
tions were kings of diflFerent small countries near at hand,
and they came to live at the French court, as well as the
chief noblemen from different parts of France. There were
constant feasts, dances, hunts, tournaments, and amuse-*
ments of all kinds. While the king and his nobles were
enjoying themselves in this way, they did not think what
might be happening to the common people who lived in
the country, and who had to pay for these amusements ;
because when the king had spent the little money he had,
the only way of getting more was to make his subjects pay
more taxes, and spend some of their money upon himself.
The common people, therefore, were especially poor and
unhappy at this time.
Philip got himself into much trouble by quarrelling
with powerful people in France. One of the great barons
had had a dispute with his aunt, as to which of them
XXV.] PHILIP VL 155
should rule over the county of Artois, of which the count
had just died. It had already been settled twice over that
Artois should belong to the aunt, but the young baron,
Eobert of Artois, hoped that as he was a great friend of
Philip VI., this king would perhaps give the county to
him. He was mistaken, however ; his aunt was allowed
to keep Artois, but she soon after died very suddenly, and
it was said that Eobert had poisoned her. It was also said
that Eobert had used dishonest ways of making it seem
that he was the person who ought to have been count, by
writing himself letters which he pretended had come from
the old count. He was tried before the king's court, and
banished for the rest of his life. Eobert was so angry at
this, that he tried to revenge himself by means of magic.
He made a waxen image of the queen and her eldest son ;
then he had them baptized by a priest, and it was believed
that when this had been done, he had only to stick a pin
in the place where the heart should have been, and to
put the images to melt away in the sun, or before the fire,
to make the queen and the prince themselves waste away
and die. The priest who was first asked to baptize one of
these figures had refused to do it, and afterwards told the
story to the king. Eobert was in Flanders, out of Philip's
reach, but the king seized his sister and her children, and
threw them into prison, burning a poor woman who was
supposed to have helped him, and took away Eobert's land,
which he kept for himself. Eobert then crossed over to
England, hoping to find some one at the English court
who would help him to revenge himself on his enemy.
The English king at this time was Edward III., a
brave, wise, and warlike young prince, who had reigned
156 PHILIP VL [CH.
only for about six years. He had wished to be King of
France, and had always been angry that Philip should
have been chosen instead of him. However, till now there
had been no open disputes between them ; but with
Bobert of Artois doing all he could to make a quarrel
between them, we cannot be surprised that the two kings
did not remain friends. Edward was at war with the
Scotch, to whom Philip sent help ; this made Edward
angry, and he was also vexed that Philip kept some of the
towns which belonged to the English in Guyenne, and had
been taken from them by the last king. Philip had pro-
mised that his lawyers should find out to whom these
towns really belonged, and that those which were Edward's
should be given back to him ; but this promise was not
kept. At last Edward heard that Philip was gathering
together ships and men, and seemed to be making ready
for an attack on England. He at once sent orders that all
his ships should join him at Portsmouth, and that every
one should be ready to fight if necessary.
The war which now began between Prance and
England is called the Hundred Years' War; and the
name shows the length of time for which it lasted. There
were great differences between England and Prance at the
time when this war began. France was very much larger
than England, the French king had many more soldiers,
and more strong cities ; but on the other hand, Edward
was richer than Philip, and was loved by his people, while
Philip's subjects had no feeling of any kind about him.
The kings of England had less power over their subjects
than the kings of France ; they could not do whatever
they chose without asking leave or advice from the Parlia-
XXV.] PHILIP VL 157
ment, and so the King and Parliament were accustomed to
settle together what should be done, and the people felt an
interest in their king, and were pleased when he succeeded,
and sorry when he failed. But in France the king did as
he pleased, and told his plans to no one. Philip VI., in
particular, kept everything about himself and his plans as
secret as possible. Whether he was pleased or whether he
was disappointed, he said nothing to his subjects. If he
wished to punish any one, he did it suddenly, without
saying what the person had done wrong, or showing his
reasons for thinking he had done anything. The people
naturally did not care much about such a king. They
would not have minded changing him for another, and
they were not at first very eager in resisting Edward III.
Edward had made himself liked by his people in many
ways, of which, as I am not writing the history of Eng-
land, I cannot speak now ; he was, as I have said, richer
than Philip, and his soldiers, especially the common people,
fought far better than those of the French king.
Though it would seem from all this that Edward had
the best chances of success, it was Philip who did most to
bring about the war. He interfered with Edward in all
kinds of ways, and showed such a strong dislike to him
that Edward, who wished for war himself, saw it would be
of no use to try to prevent it. and saHed with his army
to Flanders, He had made friends with the Flemings,
who had been very badly treated both by their own count
and by his friend, Philip VI. They did not, however,
help him as much as he had hoped. Edward thought that
perhaps they would fight for him more readily if he took
the name of King of France, and said it was to him the
158 PHILIP VI [CH.
crown ought to belong, and that he was coming to take it
from Philip. This he did, and many of the Flemings
joined him at once. In the first battle, which was fought
by sea, the French were conquered. This was the battle
qi Sluys, and is remarkable because it was the first battle
gained by the English at sea. After this there were two
years of war, then two years of truce, then war again, and
there was no more time of settled peace in the reign of
Philip. Philip lost several battles and a few towns, but
for some time Edward did him no serious harm.
While this war was going on there was a civil war in
Brittany, at the north-west corner of France. Two men,
Charles de Blois and John de Montfort, each thought they
ought to be count there. The French took the side of one,
the English of the other. John de Montfort was taken
prisoner by the French king at the beginning of the war,
and afterwards died ; his wife, Jeanne de Montfort, one of
the bravest women of whom we ever read, put herself at
the head of his army. She defended his cities for hinfi ;
she marched about the country and made speeches to all
her husband's friends, calling upon them to fight in his
cause, and showing them her little son, then quite a
child, who, she promised, should fight for them when he
grew up, if they would defend him now. She saw that
there were provisions and all that was necessary in the
towns that the French were likely to attack, and she her-
seK went for the winter into a strong town by the seaside,
so that she might be able to send for help to England if
she were in danger.
In this town her enemy, Charles de Blois, besieged her.
She and her army resisted him bravely for many weeks.
xxv.] PHILIP VI. 159
One day, when most of the enemy's soldiers were busy
attacking the walls, the Countess of Montfort noticed that
there were very few men left in the enemy's camp.
She at once went out of the town at the head of three
hundred men, and without being noticed by the enemy,
reached the tents, set them on fire, burned several of
them, and then turned to go back to the town ; but she
saw that the French soldiers were hurrying towards the
camp, and that she could not make her way through
them. She turned and rode away with her little body of
men to a castle some miles off, where she stayed for five
days. Her soldiers in the city were in great trouble
during this time, fearing that she had been killed, and the
French soldiers mocked them, saying — '* Go, sirs ; go look
for your countess ; she is certainly lost, and you will
never see her again whole." However, on the sixth night,
trumpets were heard outside the gate, and the brave
countesa was seen, having found her way secretly through
the enemy's camp ; and she was soon safe among her
friends in the besieged city. She persuaded the nobles,
who were growing impatient of the long siege, to hold the
place until Edward came to their help.
The war went on for some years, and in one of the
battles in Brittany, Eobert of Artois, who had done so
much to persuade Edward to go to war with Philip, was
killed, to the great sorrow of his friends. Edward at last
prepared three armies at once to march into France in
different parts of the country. He himself led one divi-
sion, which landed in the north of France, Philip
marched against him with an army about twice the size
of Edward's. Edward, who had almost reached the gates
160 PHILIP VI, [CH.
of Paris, and had been burning the buildings and ruining
the countries on his way, turned back before the French
army. Philip followed till the English army came to a
river, which there seemed to be no way of crossing. This
happened in the afternoon of one day, and Philip resolved
that the next morning he would attack the English, and,
as he hoped, destroy their army entirely. But in the
course of the night a peasant offered to show Edward a
ford by which his army could pass the river while the
tide was out. Edward is said to have been more pleased
than if some one had given him twenty thousand crowns.
He set off at once, and though he found a French army on
the other side ready to guard the ford, he managed to
make his way across with almost all his men by the time
Philip came up to the river brink the next morning, and
the tide rising prevented the French king from following
him that day.
It was not till two days afterwards that Philip came
up with the English army near a place called dressy,
where Edward had drawn up his men in order of battle,
and where they were refreshing themselves after their
march, resting while they waited for the enemy. Some
of Philip's knights advised him to let his men also have
time to rest a little before he attacked the English, and
Philip gave the order for the troops to stop ; but the
French soldiers were so disobedient that they refused to
stop. The great barons who were behind wished to push
on in front, and those in front wished to stay nearest
the enemy, which was the place of honour ; so there was
great confusion and disorder. The English rose up
when they saw the French coming n6ar, and prepared to
XXV.] PHILIP VI. 161
, fight. Then Philip gave orders that some foreign archers
who were in the army should begin the battle ; and they
began to shoot their arrows with hideous cries, which they
hoped would frighten the English, but which they soon
• found to be of no use. A heavy shower had fallen in the
day, and their bowstrings were wet, so that their arrows
could not fly far, while the English bows, which had been
carefully kept dry, were aU ready for use. Philip's
archers fell in great numbers, and at last turned to flee.
Then Philip gave to his men the order to turn against the
archers and kill them, and the other French soldiers fell
upon the archers and put them to death, which made the
confusion in the army so terrible that there was no more
chance of resisting the English. Philip's army was com-
pletely beaten ; and great numbers of his soldiers, friends,
and great nobles, among others his brother, were killed.
This was the battle of Cressy. There were three days'
truce to bury the dead, after which Philip went back to
Paris.
Edward went on to a town called Calais, and besieged
it for many months. Philip had so little money and so
few soldiers left that it was a long time before he could
go to the help of the people of Calais, and when he came
there he found he could not do anything for them, as the
English king was too strong for him. The place was
defended by a brave man, named John of Vienne, who
had sworn to hold it to the last moment possible. The
usual food was soon all gone, and the townspeople were
obliged to eat cats, dogs, at last even rats, boiled leather,
and anything they could find.
They sent away all the old people out of the town.
M
162 PHILIP VI. [CH.
Some people say that Edward let them pass through his
army, and gave them food, others, that he drove them into
the trench outside the town and left them to die of hunger.
At last the town was obliged to surrender. Edward was
angry at the long resistance, and reftised to promise to
spare the town unless six of the chief men of the place
came to him with ropes round their necks, and gave them-
selves up to be treated exactly as he chose. When the
people of Calais heard this, a brave townsman, named
Eustache de St. Pierre, came forward and said he would
be one of the six. Five others were soon found to follow
him, and they aU went to Edward's camp in their shirts,
with their feet bare, and cords round their necks. Edward
gave orders that they should be put to death, but his wife,
Philippa, threw herself at his feet, and wept and entreated
till he promised that their lives should be spared. He
turned all the French out of Calais, except such as agreed
jbo be his subjects, and brought over Englishmen to live
there, Philip could not prevent this, though he had done
everything in his power to save the town, and afterwards
did all he could to comfort the people who were driven out
of Calais. After having taken Calais, Edward made a
truce with Philip, and there was no more fighting for
several years.
At this time a terrible plague, a very bad kind of
illness, of which people often died quite suddenly, spread
over all Europe. It is spoken of in English history as the
Black Death, and in French as the Black Plague; and
people died of it in great numbers. Sometimes whole
villages were left empty, all the people who had lived in
them being dead, and whole streets in towns had only one
XXV.] PHILIP VI. 163
! 1
or two inhabitants left. Many of the king's relations died, \
especially many princesses. \
When the plague was over, the misfortunes of Philip ■
had not come to an end. He had married a young wife,
of whom he was very fond, but a few months later he .i
himseK fell ill, and soon after died, calling upon his eldest '|
son to defend the country bravely against their enemies,
the EnglisL In this reign a province, called Dauphin^
had been added on to France ; its count, who was in great
want of money, had sold it to Philip, and it was given to
Philip's grandson, who came in time to be King of France.
After his reign it always belonged to the eldest son of the
king, who was called after the name of the province, the
Dauphin ; as the eldest son of an English king or queen
is called the Prince of Wales. Philip VI. is the last
Philip among the kings of France.
164 JOHN (LE BON). [CH.
CHAPTER XXVL
John (1340-1356).
The next king was John, the son of Philip. He found the
country and the people over which he was to reign in a
very unhappy state. Many of the people had died of the
plague, many others had lost all they had in the war with
England ; the king himself had very little money, and no
regular army ; and the war with Edward might begin again
at any time.
John has been called the Good ; but good in those days
did not mean quite what it does now ; " good," when used
about John, meant brave, gay, courteous, fond of giving.
John's great wish was to be like a knight of the old times,
to have adventures, *toumaments, and feasts ; and he cared
much more about this than about ruling his people well.
He was also at times very passionate and cruel.
One of the first things he did, after he became king,
was to put to death one of his officers ; a count who had
been a prisoner in England, and who had been sent to
France, by King Edward, to try and collect money for his
ransom. John seems to have had some idea that this man
had made friends with the English king, and would
perhaps give up to him some of his land, instead of the
money he had come to find. The king had him suddenly
XXVI.] yOHN (LE BON). 165
carried off to prison from his own house, and cut off his head
two days later, without giving any reason to any one. This
cruel deed made aU his great lords very angry, and a strong
castle, which had belonged to the dead count, was given
up to Edward by the soldiers who held it, for they thought
the English king would be the better master of the two.
I said that the count who was put to death in this
way was an ofl&cer of the king's. He was what was called
a constable — a word which, in English, usually means only*
a policeman — ^but in France, in those days, it meant a
person who gave the king advice on aU matters that had
to do with war, and who was usually sent on any specially
dificult attack that had to be made against the enemy.
The king could not do without a constable, so he chose
a new one, who, as we shall see, was not more fortunate
than the first.
There was a man living in Prance at this time, who
was a great enemy of the king's. He was a cousin of
John's, and some people thought he ought to have been
King of France instead of John's father. His name was
Charles, King of Navarre. He had once put to death, very
cruelly, some of his subjects, who had made a plot against
him, and from that time he was called Charles the Bad.
He was not, on the whole, a worse man than John the
Good ; but he made great trouble in France, for he could
speak well, and had a pleasant manner, which made every
one like him, and he used to go about through the country,
and make speeches to the people, trying to stir them up
against the king. Had John been wise, he would have
tried to make this young man his friend, and find some
useful work for him to do for the country ; but instead of
166 JOHN {LE BON). [cH.
this he treated Charles like a child, and as if he were of no
importance, thus making him more and more of an enemy.
Charles had a special disUke to the new constable, and
one day, when they had had a quarrel together, told him
that he would be revenged upon him, and that the con-
stable should not escape though he were under the mantle
of King John himself. A short time after this, when the
constable was staying in a small village, a body of men
stole in by night to the house where he was sleeping, while
the King of Navarre waited outside the village with a
company of knights. In the morning the party that had
been in the village came out again, their leader crying ;
" It is done ! it is done !" " What is done V* said Charles.
" He is dead," was the answer. The constable had been
killed in his bed.
King John was extremely angry at this murder;
but he had so little power in the country that he was
not able to punish the King of Navarre, and so made
peace with him, promising to forgive him and be his
friend for the future ; but he did not keep this promise,
and probably never meant to do so. Two years later,
when the King of Navarre was one evening dining with
the king^s eldest son, with whom he had made great
friends, John suddenly appeared in the room with a body
of soldiers, and carried off Charles of Navarre and several
of his friends who were with him to prison, where he cut
off the heads of aU but three of the party. Charles was
one of those whose life was spared, but he was kept
in prison for some months, and at first fully expected
to be put to death as his friends had been. The king
gave orders to his guards to torture him by telling him
XXVI.] yOHN (LE BON), 167
constantly that he was to die in a few hours* time.
They sometimes woke him at night to say this, and
though he probably came at last to disbeKeve them, yet
it was extremely disagreeable for him never to feel sure
that the unpleasant threat might not at last be carried out.
Meantime the truce between Edward and John had
come to an end, and the war began again. Edward did
not this time come to France himself, but he sent his son
Edward, known as the Black Prince, at the head, of his
armies, to command instead of him. John had, as usual
with the French kings, scarcely any money, so he called
together the States-Gteneral, which I described in another
chapter, to ask whether his people would give him some.
The deputies said they would, but made him promise
that he would not spend it except by the advice of some
of their own number whom they chose out for the pur-
pose. The people trusted their king so little that they feared
he might spend the money on his own amusements, and
that they might be none the better off for having given it
to him. The Black Prince, as soon as he landed in
France, began to march about the midland provinces, and
do great harm there, burning and destroying what came
in his way. The French king led an army to stop him,
and after following him for some days, they came to a
place near Poitiers, where the English army stopped, and
made ready to defend themselves. As had happened. at
Cressy, the French king had many more men than the
English leader, but the difference in the second battle
was greater than in the first At Cressy there were
twice as many French as English ; at Poitiers six times as
many.
168 JOHN (LE BON), [CH.
The English army was on a hill, and the side of the
hill was covered with vineyards and hedges. Through
the vineyards was a path which led up the hill, and the
Black Prince had hidden archers near to the path, so that
they might shoot at any one who tried to reach the top.
He also made what is called an ambush, that is, he hid
some soldiers at the bottom of a hiU, in a place where
the French king would not expect to find any one, who
were to sparing out suddenly, and take the enemy by sur-
prise. Had John waited without attacking the English,
and simply prevented them from coming down to find
food, they would soon have had to yield to him ; but in-
stead of this, he determined to attack them on the hill.
Two messengers were sent by the Pope to try and
stop the battle; but they tried in vain. The morning
after their visit King John sent a body of his men to
climb the steep path leading to the top of the hill. They
were on horseback, and as soon as they were seen on
the path, the English archers shot off their long arrows,
which killed and wounded great numbers, both of men
and horses. The horses, when they felt the arrows,
turned and rushed down the hill in great confusion.
The French soldiers below were so much Mghtened at
seeing their Mends fleeing before the English, that many
of them turned and [fled also. Among others the three
eldest sons of the French king, of whom the eldest was
about twenty, were persuaded by their officers to run away
with the soldiers. They galloped off with eight hundred
unwounded men, who had never been near the enemy,
and did not stop till they were in perfect safety.
The army had been in three divisions ; the only one
XXVI.] JOHN {LE BON). 169
'I
whicli remained fighting was that where the king himself
was commanding. The Black Prince rushed down the hill,
followed by his small army, to attack John in front; the
men in ambush came out of their hiding-place to attack
him on the side, and a struggle began which lasted for
some hours. King John fought bravely, like one of the
old knights whom he so much admired. He held a huge
battle-axe with which he attacked every enemy who came
near him. His fourth tson, Philip, quite a boy, stayed by
his side and watched over him, calling out, " Father, look
to the right : Father, look to the left," whenever he saw
any one making a stroke or shot at the king. But John's
courage could not prevent him &om being beaten at last ;
his men fell round him in great numbers, and the English
had gathered about him, crying out, " Yield, yield, or you
are a dead man." John gave himself up to a knight who
could speak French, and by him was taken, with his
son Philip, to the tent of the Black Prince, where he was
received with great kindness and politeness, and treated
like a brave visitor rather than a prisoner. The Prince of
Wales gave him the chief place at table, and stood behind
his chair to fetch him anything that he might want
The English soldiers went out on the field of battle,
and gathered together all the money and valuable metal
they could find, of which there was a great quantity. The
next day King John was taken prisoner to Bordeaux.
The French were much distressed at the loss of their
king, and very angry with aU the knights and barons who
had fled from the field instead of fighting for him to the
last. The English had taken so many prisoners that they
had not been able to guard them aU, and so had sent them
170 JOHN (LE BON). [CH.
back to their own homes, making them promise to return
at a certain day to pay their ransoms. This was a promise
which no one, at that time, ever thought of breaking. The
French lords went to their estates, and called upon all
their serfs and vassals to collect money for their ransoms.
These poor people were obliged to give up all their money,
besides having their goods taken from them, their com,
their cattle, or their fruits, which were sold by their lords
to make up the sum that was wanted. Many of these
poor men were even tortured to make them say where
they had hidden their treasures. This made them more
angry than ever at the way the nobles had behaved.
That they should run away instead of defending the coun-
try, as was their duty, seemed bad enough, but that they
should expect other people to pay for their cowardice was
enough to make even their weak and helpless vassals begin
to think of resistance.
It was now settled that, as King John seemed likely to
be kept a prisoner for some time, his eldest son, Charles,
Duke of Normandy, should be Eegent, that is, rule in his
place while he was away. This young man was about
Lnty years old. and not very wis^ Zli is not surprising
that he had some difGlculty in managing the country
through the three years during which John was a prisoner.
John was soon taken to England, where he was very well
treated, allowed to live with the King of England as one
of his friends, and altogether made as happy as a prisoner
can ever be.
The young regent had two special enemies in France ;
one was the King of Navarre, whom John had thrown
into prison, and whom Charles kept there for the first
XXVI.] yOHN(LEBON), 171
few months of his reign ; and the other was a man about
whom a great deal is to be read in all the histories of this
time, called Etienne or Stephen MarceL Marcel was a
deputy of the States-General, who had been what we should
call a sheriff, and was well known to aU the towns-people
of Paris. He had shown himself to be brave and wise,
and to care for the people of Paris. "When Paris seemed
to be in danger from the enemy coming clbse to the gates of
the city, he had made every arrangement for defending the
town. He had had a wall built round it, and outside the
waU a trench or large ditch; on the wall were little towers
in which soldiers could be placed to attack any one who
tried to make his way through. Marcel had also persuaded
the people of Paris to buy arms, and learn to use them,
and he had prepared chains to stretch across the streets in
case any horse-soldiers should come in. After aU, Paris
was never attacked, but the Parisians were grateful to
Marcel for having made them feel safe by making all these
arrangements for their defence.
The States-General met at once after the Duke of
Normandy had taken the chief power in the State, and
several times afterwards. They gave the regent much
good advice, which he was not particularly pleased to
receive from them. Marcel soon saw that the young
prince would not listen to what he wished, and that if he
made promises to set straight all that was going wrong in
the kingdom, as far as it was in his power to do so, he
made them without meaning to keep them.
The common people of France were at this time in a
bad state ; they had lost a great deal of what belonged to
them, they had been much ill-treated, and were poor.
172 JOHN (LE BON). [CH.
miserable, and discontented. This was only natural after
so much money had been spent by John and his father
Philip upon their amusements and their wars with the
English, besides all the losses of the French after the
battles of Cressy and Poiters, and during the many years
through which their enemies stayed in the land, burning
and laying waste the country. Etienne Marcel knew of
this state of things, and though he had more power than
any other man in the kingdom, he could no more set it
right than the young prince ; but besides aU these troubles,
the Duke of Normandy was always doing things that the
people disliked, and which were bad for the countiy ; buj)
yet he could not be persuaded to leave them off.
There were many disputes between him and Marcel.
Once Marcel marched at the head of a body of men to the
palace where the regent lived, to call upon him to do
something to defend the country against the English.
The regent answered in a very unfriendly way, and
Marcel made a sign to some of his friends who had fol-
lowed him into the room, and who at once fell upon two
of the regent's chief officers standing on each side of him,
and murdered them before their master's eyes. At this
the regent was so much frightened, that he promised to do
anything Marcel wished, and put on a cap of red, white,
and blue, the colours always worn by Marcel's friends, and
which are now the colours of the French Eepublic.
But Marcel gained no good end by this wicked and
cruel act.
The prince kept his promises only for a short time, and
then he went out of Paris, and seemed to be calling to-
gether his friends, and makiiig ready to attack the town.
XXVI.] JOHN {LE BON). 173
Marcel had tried to make friends with the King of
Navarre, but he was not much more to be trusted than the
regent. He also left Paris, and seemed to.be making
friends with the prince. Marcel invited the King of
Navarre to come back to the town and make himself king
there, and was going secretly one night to open the gate
of the city by which Charles was to come in, when some
of the regent's friends saw him, found out who he was, fell
upon him, and killed him. Thus Marcel died, and the
young prince came into the city the next day, and found
no one left to resist him in any way.
Just before this the poor peasants, who had had to
suffer so much in finding money to pay their lords' ran-
soms, had resolved to resist the ill-treatment, which was
too much for them to bear. They rose up in a body, and
marched through the country, burning houses, carrying off
cattle, emptying bams and storehouses, and torturing their
masters the nobles as they had been tortured themselves.
These poor people were wicked because they were ignorant,
and had been taught nothing good ; and unkind and cruel,
because no one had ever been kind to them. The peasants
from different parts of Prance joined each other, and they
were too* strong to be stopped at once. But when the
nobles made up an army and marched against them, the
peasants could not long resist ; many of them were killed
in battles, and the nobles and gentlemen went in small
parties through the country, behaving in much the same
way as the peasants had done — ^burning houses, killing the
people, and destroying all that came in their way.
At this time also bands of robbers went through the
country, taking whatever they could find, and finding
174 JOHN {LE BON). [ch.
plenty of goods, either belonging to no one or belonging
to people so weak as not to be able to defend them.
After King John had been for three years a prisoner in
England there came news that he and King Edward had
made peace together, and that John was soon to be set
free and come back to his own country. The French were
much pleased^ at this, as they thought things could not be
worse, and might grow better if their own king were over
them once more; but when they heard how much of
France John had agreed to give up to Edward, they said
it was a shameful peace, that they would not agree to it,
and that John must stay a prisoner. Edward then came
to France and went on with the war, making the people
more wretched than ever, till at last every one agreed to a
peace, by which it was settled that Edward should give up
calling himself King of France, and should set John free ;
and that in return a large ransom should be paid, and the
greater part of the west side of France should be given up
to him. John was allowed to return to France, and sent
two of his younger sons with some of the other great lords
to be prisoners instead of him tiU his ransom should have
been paid.
In this year the plague which had before visited France
appeared again, and great numbers of the people died,
especially those who had been made weak by having little
and unwholesome food to eat The only important thing
that happened after John came back to France again was
that the Count of Burgundy died, and John was able to
add this large province to his kingdom, though it ought by
rights to have belonged to the King of Navarre. Soon
after this one of John's sons escaped from the court of
XXVI.] JOHN {LE BON), 175
Edward, where John had promised he should stay till the
ransom had been paid. When John heard of this he
resolved to go back himself to Edward's court and be his
prisoner again. The French writers say that John went
back because he found his own country much less pleasant
than England, and thought it harder work to be expected
to rule his people than to be the visitor of King Edward,
and have hunts and tournaments and all sorts of gaiety go
on in his honour ; and this is very likely true. Soon after
he went back to England he was taken ill and died there,
and his son, who had been regent, became^ king in his place.
176 CHARLES V. {LE SAGE). [ch.
CHAPTEE XXVII.
Charles V. (1364-1380).
The next king was Charles V., the eldest son of John.
As this young man had been managing the business of
governing the country for eight years already, his subjects
thought they knew pretty well what sort of a king he
would make, and they were not much pleased at the idea
of having him to rule over them. He had run away from
the battle of Poitiers when a boy, and since then he had
never been seen with armour on, being weak and delicate,
unfit for war, and for most of the amusements of the time.
He had not been able to do anything for his country
ail through the troubles of the time when John was a
prisoner, and it was supposed that he was too foolish to
govern ; but his subjects soon changed their minds about
him when he became king, and Charles V. is now known
as Charles le Sage, or the Wise.
BKs people never loved him, for they never saw him,
and knew scarcely anything about him ; he used to live
shut up in his own palace, seeing only his ministers V
and his generals, and making plans with them as to how {
the country was to be governed. One very important \
matter when France had such fierce enemies ready to i
attack her, especially when the king was not able to go to
XXVII.] CHARLES V, (LE SAGE). 177
■ ' ' ' ' ■ — — —
war himself, was to find a good general to lead the armies.
The king was happy enough to find such a man, Bertrand
Dn Guesclin, a knight of Brittany, who fought his battles
.for him aU through his reign, often with great success.
Du Guesclin, when a child, had been fierce and wilful,
and cared for nothing but fighting ; his mother had often
been in despair as to what would become of him, but as
soon as he was a man, he grew famous for his strength and
courage in tournaments, till at last he became a soldier in
earnest, and fought all through many of the wars in the
reign of King John.
One unusual thing about him was that he was kind to
the poor, and defended them whenever it was possible.
Wars such as those in which he had to fight could not go
on without bringing much ill-treatment and distress to the
poor of the country round about, but the difference be
tween Du Guesclin and most other soldiers of his time
was that he was sorry to see this distress, and did what
he could to relieve it, while most men did not think about
it at all, and wenF on their own way without caring in
the least what happened to the peasants.
Charles V. found that one of the great troubles of
France when he began to reign was what was called the
Free Lance companies. They were more like bands of
robbers than soldiers ; they had no payment for fighting
but what they could get for themselves, so that they were
obliged to take food and whatever they wanted from the
people of the country. The King of Navarre had called
together a great number of these companies, and was
pleased to see them lay waste the kingdom that be-
longed to his enemy. Du Guesclin defeated them in a
N
178 CHARLES V. (LE SAGE). [CH.
great battle, which kept them quiet for a time. This
happened just before the king was crowned, so that it was
looked upon by his subjects as a sign of a happy and
successful reign.
But new troubles soon arose ; the war in Brittany was
still going on, and Du Guesclin led an army to help
Charles de Blois,'the prince on whose side the kings of
France had always been. This time the French leader
was defeated ; he was taken prisoner, and his men were
put to flight. After this, John de Montfort, the Mend of
the English, was made Duke of Brittany, and there was
peace in that country and in other parts of France for
a short time.
But though the war stopped, the free companies still
roamed about the land, burning and stealing wherever
they went, and building themselves strong places to live
in, so that they were in no danger of being driven away
by the angry peasants. The king's soldiers, far from
trying to defend the people, helped the robbers, and took
a share of the spoil for themselves. Charles at last made
up his mind that the free companies must in some way or
other be made to leave France, and it was arranged that
Du Guesclin should take them to fight in Spain, where a
war was going on.
Unfortunately Du Guesclin and the companies fought
too well They conquered their enemies, and came back
to France again, to the despair of the people. It was sup-
posed that the English employed the companies to do
harm to France, and this was one of the reasons for the
quarrel which soon arose between France and England.
No one can have supposed that the French would ever
XXVII.] CHARLES V. {LE SAGE), 179
be. satisfied to live at peace while the English were masters
of the greater part of one side of the country. When one
country conquers another, and takes from it a large quan-
tity of land, there is almost sure to be another war before
long, and so it happened now. The people living in the
part of France which had been given up to the English
were displeased at the way in which they were governed
by the Black Prince, who was their ruler. One difficulty,
as usual, was that he wished them to pay more taxes
than they liked. It is also said that the French disliked
their English rulers chiefly on account of the rough,
unfriendly maimers of the English, who never seemed to
think the French had anything to do with them, or ought
to be treated like subjects of the same king, but behaved
as if they were conquered enemies, almost servants. The
people of one of these provinces sent to King Charles,
saying that he had not the power to give away any of his
subjects to another king, and asking him to let them come
back and be his subjects once again. Charles was pleased
at this, for he had long been making up his mind in secret
to go to war with England, and now he seemed to have a
good excuse.
Charles then sent a letter to the Black Prince, telling
him of the complaints made against him by his R:ench
subjects, and calling upon him to come to Paris to be
judged there by the king's court. This was treating the
prince as if he were still a vassal of Charles's, and made
him very angry. When the letter was brought to him, he
thought for a little while, and then said, shaking his head
— " We wiU certainly go to Paris, as the King of France
sends for us, but we wiU go helmet on head, with sixty
180 CHARLES V, {LE SAGE). [CH.
thousand men behind us." A few months later King
Charles declared war.
Charles had resolved that this war should be carried
on in a different way from those which had gone before.
He saw that the nobles of France had become so unruly
and rash, and that the common people were so Hi-prepared
for fighting, that he had no chance in a great battle against
the English. He knew that if the French were defeated
again, as they had been at Cressy and Poitiers, it would
be a terrible misfortune for the country, and make more
of the distress and poverty which he was trying to relieve.
He therefore gave orders to his generals that no battle
should ever be fought betweenhis men and those of the King
of England. If the English marched through the country,
as they often did, they found no one to resist them ; the
villagers fled to the strong towns, taking with them all the
food they could carry off, and the English marched from
one province to another, laying waste the country, but
wearing themselves out by degrees, and obliged to come
back at last by loss of men and want of food. The pea-
sants usually followed the army at a little distance, and
attacked it whenever they had an opportunity, doing as
much harm as they could.
Du Guesclin was a great help to the king, both in
making these plans and in carrying them out for him.
They answered so well that after the war had lasted for
four years, the English were driven entirely out of the
province of Poitou, and after this more and more of the
country was taken firom them. The Black Prince died in
England while the war was still going on. His nature
had seemed to change as he grew older, and he who had
XXVII.] CHARLES V. (LE SAGE), 181
shown so much kindness and politeness to King John of
France after the battle of Poitiers, became cruel to his
enemies and severe to his subjects before the end of his
life. His last victory was at Limoges, a French town,
which he had taken after a siege of a month, where he
treated the people with horrible cruelty, urging on the
soldiers to kill them all. He was very ill at the time, and
was carried through the streets in his litter, while men,
women, and children threw themselves on their knees
before him, crying for mercy, but he listened to none of
them, and more than three thousand people are said to
have been put to death on this day. The city was burned,
plundered, and destroyed.
Charles V., who carried on this great war so well, and
freed such a large part of his kingdom from the power of
the English, had time to think about peaceful matters as
well as about armies and fortresses. He read books of all
kinds, and employed some of the wise men about him to
write books upon questions which interested him, and to
translate old Greek and Latin books, so that they might
become well known. He was also fond of building, and
during the one year of truce which came in the middle of
the long war with England, he had many bridges, churches,
and fine houses begun in Paris. He also began the Bas-
tiUe, which was at first a fortress to defend Paris against
enemies, and afterwards was used only as a prison.
Charles was very delicate ; he had many illnesses, and
did not live long. His death was quite sudden. The war
between the French and English was going on ; a body of
English had been surrounded by different French armies
in a place between two rivers, from which they could not
182 CHARLES V. {LE SAGE). [CH.
make their way out. One morning, when the English
came out of their camp, there was no enemy to be seen.
The French generals had been called to Paris, where Charles
V. was dying. His two younger brothers were with him,
and the king made them promise to protect his eldest son,
the Dauphin, a boy of twelve years old. Another brother,
the Duke of Anjou, had also come to court, though with-
out being invited, as he and Charles were not friends.
No sooner was the king dead, than this brother seized all
the jewels which had belonged to him, and kept them for
his own, though they should by rights have passed on to
the new king, the son of Charles V.
XXVIII.] CHARLES VI. 183
CHAPTEE XXVIII.
Charles VL (1380-1422).
When Charles V. died, his eldest son Charles, who was to
be king after him, was only twelve years old. He was a
tail, handsome boy, caring more for amusement than for
anything else, which, whfle he was so young, was right and
natural, but which distressed his subjects and ministers
when, as years went- by, they found that he grew no
steadier, and took scarcely any interest in the affairs of
the kindom.
Charles Y. had arranged that the three uncles of his
young son should govern the country, and take charge of
the young prince till he was old enough to rule for him-
self. These uncles, who were bad violent men, fond of
power, and not caring the least about what might happen
to their subjects, divided the chief provinces of the country
amongst them, and ruled them for the king.
Charles Y., besides leaving a great deal of money for
his son, had collected some treasure, which he had hidden
in the walls of one of his castles, where he hoped that no
one would think of looking for it. It was not made into
money, but was in bars of gold and silver, and very pre-
cious. The secret of this treasure he told only to his
Treasurer, who was to give it in due time to his son. One
184 CHARLES VL [CH.
of the uncles, the Duke of Anjou, who had already stolen
the crown jewels, heard of this secret. He sent for the
Treasurer, asked where the money was hidden, and when
the Treasurer refused to say, threatened to put him to
death. At last he even sent for the executioner, and told
him to cut off the head of the Treasurer. The poor Trea-
surer then gave way, and told the Duke of Anjou where
the gold and silver was to be found. The duke at once
went to the place, dug up the treasure, and carried it off
to make use of it in a war of his own which he was
carrying on in Italy. Soon after this the young king was
crowned, and was then taken to Paris, where he was well
received by the people. But it was not long before war
began between the people of Paris and Charles VI.
At this time, in all the greater countries of Europe
there were signs that the common people were not only
discontented and unhappy, but ready to rise up against
those who were richer than they, and try in some way or
other to take for themselves the good things, the comfort,
or the riches, or the power, which they saw other people
enjoying. The citizens of Paris had many taxes to pay,
and one of the first things they did was to make Charles
and his uncles promise that a great many of the taxes
should be taken off. In Eouen too the people had risen
up against the Duke of Anjou, who was their governor,
because he tried to make them pay some new taxes ; they
found a draper, who they declared should be their king,
and whom they took through the town on a chariot,
doing honour to him. They also tried to take the castle
of Eouen. The king and his uncles came with a troop
of soldiers to quiet the disturbance, and thus the first
XXVIII.] CHARLES VL 185
time that Charles VI. bore arms, it was against his own
subjects.
After this the taxes which had been taken off from the
people of Paris were all put on again. For some time no
one could be found bold enough to tell the people that the
king meant to do this ; for you must remember that at this
time there was no such thing as a newspaper or printed
notice, by which a new tax might be announced, and if
the king wished to make known anything to the people of
Paris, some one had to cry it out in the streets, so that
every one might hear. At last a town-crier was found who
was persuaded to cry out the news about the taxes. He
rode into the market-place, and cried out that the king
had lost some plate ; a crowd of people came round him to
hear what he was saying, and when he saw that most of
them were listening to him, he turned his horse and gal-
loped away as fast as possible, calling out that the taxes
would be collected the next day. There wa^ a riot and
great disturbance after this, and the end of it was that the
people of Paris refused to pay the taxes, but promised to
give the king a great sum of money instead.
The people of Flanders, the country which is now
Holland and Belgium, also rose up against their ruler, the
Count of Flanders, a bad and cruel man. Charles VI.
fought his first battle, and won his first victory, helping
the count against his subjects.
When Charles VI. was fourteen, he had the power of
doing whatever he liked in the kingdom. When any diffi-
cult question had to be settled, he was obliged to leave it
to his uncles to decide, for he knew nothing about any
important matter; but if the question was a plain one, that
186 CHARLES VI. [CH.
he could understand, lie decided for himself, without taking
advice of any one^ and often ordered what the wisest of his
ministers had decided, after much thought, that it would
be best not to do. Yet he was always obeyed in whatever
he ordered, for the King of France had absolute power,
that is, there was no one to prevent him from doing
exactly what he liked ; no body of men like our Parliament,
which can prevent the king from having his own way,
when the members of Parliament think what he wishes to
be bad for the country. When Charles was in Flanders,
he once gave orders that a particular town should be en-
tirely burned down, and the people put to death, or sold as
slaves, and it was done at once. The town was set on fire
in a hundred different places, and the French army watched
it bum till it was a heap of ruins. ,
Charles was fond of war, and he and his uncles had a
great wish to conquer England ; they made ready more
than nine hundred ships to carry their soldiers ax^ross the
British Channel, dividing England ftom France, The
nobles at this time were fond of making themselves as
gay and as splendid as possible. Though the poor people of
the country were in great distress, the nobles were rich,
and spent a great deal of money on their clothes and
finery of different sorts. They did the same with their
ships ; they painted them all kinds of bright colours, car-
peted them with rich stuffs, ornamented the masts with
leaves of gold and silver, and hung up silk flags with their
coats-of-arms beautifully worked. It was not very wise
at the beginning of a war to spend their money upon what
could do them no possible good, and would so soon be
spoiled or destroyed. They also prepared a great quantity
XXVIII.] CHARLES VL 187
of food to take with them, in case the English should be too
strong to be robbed of their stores ; and what was most
curious of all, a wooden town, all" in different pieces, which
was to be put up when the army landed. It must have
been something like the wooden farmyards with which
children play, for it had houses to be put up in rows, and
a wall to go round it and protect it. It was so large that
it took seventy-two ships to carry aU. the parts of it.
After aU. this, the ships never started ; one of the king's
uncles did not really wish to set out, and was so long in
joining the rest of the army, that the right time of year
had gone by, and the whole thing was given up.
The next year the king tried again to collect an army
and fleet, and attack England ; but this time he was pre-
vented from starting by his constable being taken prisoner
by an enemy, and shut up for some time in a castle.
When at last he was let out, the constable was so busy in
asking every one to help him to punish his enemy, that he
had no time to think of the attack against England ; and
as the king could not go without him, the plan was given
up again.
A year after tl]as, Charles was persuaded by some of
the great men in the State^ who hated his uncles, that he
was now quite old enough to rule for himsel£ He had
been king for eight years, and was now twenty years old.
The common people and the nobles aU. hated his uncles,
and thought that if Charles ruled alone the government
might possibly be better, and could not be worse than it
now was. These uncles had spent all the king's money,
led out his soldiers, and brought them back again without
making the least use of them, and without paying their
188 CHARLES VI. [CH.
wages, and treated the people of their own special pro-
vinces with the greatest cruelty. Charles VL was much
pleased at the idea of ruling for himself ; he held a great
council, at which he told his uncles, that being now grown
up, he no longer wanted their help in ruling the country ;
he thanked them for all they had done for him, and sent
them away loaded with rich presents.
After this Charles gave himself up to what, next to
war, he liked best in the world, feasting and making
merry. The young princess, whom he had lately married,
was crowned queen, and there were processions, feasts,
and shows of different kinds ; fountains of milk and wine
ran at the comers of the streets, and all the houses were
made gay with rich silk and tapestry hanging from the
windows. As the queen passed by the great church of
Ndtre Dame, a man dressed like an angel slid down a cord
jfrom the top of one of the high towers, put a beautiful
crown on her head, and was drawn up again. Charles VI.
disguised himself as a common person, and stood in the
street to see the show. He was so anxious to get a good
view, that he was always pressing forwards to the front,
and thQ sergeants who were keeping order in the street,
several times gave him blows with their rods to make him
keep in his place, of course without having the least idea
that it was the king whom they were treating thus. These
little adventures amused Charles very much, and this was
the kind of way in which he liked to spend his time.
This feast, and others which followed it, cost the king
immense sums of money ; but his ministers could not per-
suade him to spend less, or to think of the misery of his
poorer subjects, whose taxes had to pay for his amuse-
XXVIII.] CHARLES VL 189
ment. After the king had enjoyed his power for three
years more, a terrible misfortune happened to him, which
made the rest of his reign a miserable time for himself and
for Prance.
The constable of France was a great friend of the king^s
and the chief soldier of France. He had one evening been
dining at a feast given by Charles, and was on his way
home, when he was attacked in a smaU street by one of his
enemies, knocked off his horse, and supposed to be killed.
The king, hearing of what had happened, went out to look
for him ; and finding the constable alive, promised hiTn that
his enemy should be fitly punished. It was not long before
he set out vidth a body of soldiers to march against the
enemies of his constable. It was a very hot day, and the
king had been for some time ill and feverish. As he rode
through the forest a man with his head bare rushed through
the trees, seized the bridle of the king's horse, and said to
him, "King! go back; you are betrayed." This man
seemed to be mad ; and either must have been so or must
have been sent by the people against whom Charles was
marching, in the hope that he would be persuaded to turn '
back. The king said nothing, but rode on with two pages
close behind him, one carrying a spear and the other a
shield. One of these boys fell asleep, and the spear falling
from his hand, hit against the shield which his companion
carried, and made a ringing noise.
The king turned round suddenly, calling out the word
which he had just heard — " Betrayed !" — drew his sword,
and rode against his own followers, hitting and wounding
them. At first they supposed that one of them had dis-
pleased him in some way ; but when they saw him ride
190
CHARLES VL
[CH.
against his own brother, they understood that he must be
mad, and with some difficulty they got behind him, held
his arms to his sides, and lifted him off his horse. He had
become quite senseless, and knew no one. They carried
him home, and at first thought that he was dead ; he lived
for thirty years after this, but he never again became
sensible enough to be able to govern for himsel£ He was
mad for the rest of his life, sometimes more mad, sometimes
less. There were particular times of year when his senses
partly came back to him, so that he could understand
something of what was going on ; and at such times he
often tried to make good and wise laws ; but he was quite
in the power of the people who happened to be about him,
and always did what they wished, till his madness came
back and he could again understand nothing. The rest of
the poor king^s reign, with which he himself has very little
to do, must be told in another chapter.
XXIX.] CHARLES VL 191
CHAPTEE XXIX.
Charles VL — {contmued).
1392-1422.
The first time that the king began to get better it was
hoped that he would soon be completely cured. He was,
in fact, for some months quite as usual ; and there were
feasts and rejoicings in honour of his being well again, in
aU of which he took part. One evening, at a ball, he and
five of his young friends dressed themselves up as wild
men, and came in to dance before the guests. They liad
on tunics daubed over with pitch, with tow fastened on to
it to make them look hairy. The king^s young brother
was foolish enough to hold up a torch close to the face of
one of these men, in order to find out who he was ; the tow
and pitch caught fire, and blazed up all over his body, till
the poor man looked like a column of flame. Unfortu-
nately all these young men, except the king, were chained
together ; the fire spread from one to another, and burned
so fiercely that it was impossible to put it out. One of the
five broke his chain, escaped from the others, threw himself
into a tub of water which was standing outside the ball-
room, and thus saved his life ; but the other four all died,
two at once and two within two days after.
192 CHARLES VL [CH.
Charles himself was safe ; but this dreadful sight seems
to have cured him for the time of his great love for shows
and feasts ; and he was beginning to attend seriously to
important matters of government when his madness came
back and put a stop to all his efforts.
For many years the chief thing that happened in
France was the great dispute as to who should have the
power which the poor king could not hold. The chief
persons in the kingdom, next to the king, were his uncles
and his brother. One of his uncles had died, and of the
other three there was one more ambitious — ^that is, fond of
power — more brave, and more clever than the others,
named the Duke of Burgundy. He was called Philip le
Hardi, or the Bold, and was the man who, when he was a
boy, had ridden by his father, King John, all through the
battle of Poitiers, and been taken prisoner with him to
England afterwards. This was one of the people who
wished for power in the State ; the other was the king's
only brother, the Duke of Orleans; This young man is
said to have had all the faults of the king, but was, unlike
him, clever and fond of power. He and the Duke of Bur-
gundy struggled for power for many years, and sometimes
one sometimes the other got the better in the dispute.
Scarcely anything else happened in France during this
time ; and as the princes never could make up their minds
to a regular battle, the people of the country we;it on
planting their fields, and carrying on their usual business,
without being much disturbed ; so that the country was not
in so bad a state as might have been feared during the first
years of the king^s madness. The people improved in many
ways ; new inventions were made, men wrote poetry and
xxixj CHARLES VI. . 193
— - I - • I I II I- I I I ,, I
other works, and thought about many important matters of
which they had never before taken any notice. They loved
the poor mad king, who, whenever he had any sense, showed
a great wish to make good laws, and do something useful
for his people, and they called him Charles le Bien-Aim^
or the Well-beloved.
The Duke of Burgundy usually had on his side the
northern parts of France, and the Duke of Orleans the
southern parts. Sometimes one and sometimes the other
made friends with the English, and tried to get help from
them. When the Duke of Burgundy died, his son, who
became duke after him, carried on the quarrel, and at last,
by his orders, the Duke of Orleans was murdered in the
street. It shows iilto what disorder the country had by
this time fallen, that no one tried to punish the Duke of
Burgundy for this wicked deed, except the wife of the
murdered man, the Duchess of Orleans, and her three sons,
who were still boys. They soon found that no help could
be hoped for from the nobles, and that they must wait till
they were of an age to avenge their father.
The king tried to persuade the .young princes of
Orleans to make peace with their father's murderer. A
meeting was held two years after the death of the duke, at
which the Duke of Burgundy confessed that it was he who
had ordered the murder, and though he showed no signs
of repenting of what he had done, asked both the king
and the children of the Duke of Orleans to forgive him.
The young princes wept, and for some time would not
answer him ; but they were at last persuaded to say that
as the king ordered them to do so, they forgave him for
their father^s death. But their feelings were not at all
194 CHARLES VL [CH.
changed by what they had thus promised. Some years
after this, the Duke of Burgundy was himself murdered
by his enemies of the party of Orleans, who had gained
over to their side the Dauphin, the eldest son of the king.
The Duke of Burgundy was invited to come to a meeting
with the Dauphin to talk over the affairs of the country.
The meeting was to be at the middle of a bridge, where a
little house was built for them with a door on each side,
through which the prince and duke were to go in with a
few servants each, and then fasten the doors behind them,
so that no strangers could hear what they might say to
one another. As soon as they were in this house, a
dispute began ; one of the Dauphin's friends cried out,
" It is time ! " and struck the Duke of Burgundy with an
axe, killing him afterwards with a sword. All his friends
except one were also killed.
Towards the end of the reign of Charles VI., a new
war broke out with England. Eichard II. of England had
been driven from the throne by his cousin, Henry IV., and
had died in prison, it was supposed by poison. Some of
the French princes had taken the side of Henry, others
had wished to go to war to save Eichard while he was
alive, and to revenge him when he was dead. But the
war did not begin till after the death of Henry IV., in the
reign of his son, Henry V. This prince was brave and
warlike, and easily found an excuse for beginning a war
with France. He went into the country with a large
army, and finding no one to resist him, for the French had
no ships, no money, and no one to lead their soldiers,
he besieged and took the large town of Honfleur, the
first which came in his way. The English afterwards
XXIX.] CHARLES VL 195
marched farther through the country, till they met a large
French army, which had at last been gathered together, and
which came to stop Henry's way. The armies met each
other near a village named Agincourt, and passed a night
face to face.
The English having rolled up their flags and carefully
stored away their armour, that it might not be hurt by the
damp, sent to fetch straw from the villages near at hand^
and lay down on it to pass the night comfortably. They
had also made ready their bows, and prepared the sharp
stones that they usually put in front of their army to stop
the horses of the enemy ; they confessed their sins to the
priests who were with them in the army, and slept with
good consciences. Above all, they were perfectly quiet^ as
the king had ordered. The French spent their time chiefly
in being knighted ; they had large fires, by whose light the
English could see all that happened in their camp, and
they were calling to each other and running backwards
and forwards all night. Some of the knights sat on horse-
back all night through for fear of spoiling their armour in
the mud, and in the morning were almost dead of cold and
fatigue.
The French army was placed in a small narrow plain
with a wood on each side, where its great size was of but
little use ; between it and the English army was ploughed
land soft from the rain. The English began the attack by
rushing against the enemy, giving loud cries. The French
could not move for some time, so deeply had they, on their
heavy horses, sunk into the soft eartL At last they came
forward, but their horses could not make their way through
the mud. Many fell with their riders underneath them.
196 CHARLES VL [CH.
Others, which came far enough to be hit by the English
arrows, were frightened, turned round, and galloped back
upon the rest of the French army, throwing them into
great confusion.
The battle went on as it had begun, the heavy-armed
Frenchmen, shut up in a narrow space, and moving over
ground into which their horses sank at every step, had no
chance against the light, active, EngUsh foot-soldiers, who
rushed upon them with whatever weapons they had ;
often only hatchets and axes, for the English army was
not well armed, but made up of men who had come
together hastily. They kiQed many of the French soldiers
who were lying on the ground, quite unable to do any-
thing to save themselves. At one time Henry V. was
told that a body of Frenchmen were attacking his camp
from behind. He gave orders to his soldiers to kill the
prisoners, thinking that if his men were to defend them-
selves against another attack, the prisoners would be in
their way, and hinder them from fighting their best.
Thousands of prisoners were then put to death, who had
given themselves up on the promise that their lives should
be spared.
More Frenchmen were kUled at this battle than even
at Cressy or Poitiers. It is known as the battle of Agin-
court, and caused great joy in England. It is mentioned
in Lord Macaulay's poem on the " Defeat of the Spanish
Armada," where, speaking of the lion on the English flag,
he say!
" So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay ;
And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters
lay."
xxixj CHARLES VL 197
Still, though " crushed and torn," the French could
not give up their quarrels among themselves, and soon
after Heniy V. took the town of Eouen, after a siege of
seven months, without any one trying to prevent him.
The people of Eouen had suffered terribly before they
would agree to yield and give up their town. They soon
came to an end of their proper food, and then ate horses,
dogs, cats, and at last everything that could be swallowed.
King Henry's soldiers rode through the country outside
the walls, canying off aU the food they could find, for fear
it should, in any way, be sent into Eouen. Some of these
' soldiers were wild Irishmen, of whom the French were
specially afraid, because of their strange looks and their
wildness. They went about half naked, having very few
clothes, and as they had no horses, they usually rode on
the cows of the villagers. One of their plans was to carry
off babies in their cradles, which they rested upon the
necks of the cows. They made the parents pay them
large sums either in money or food, before they brought
back the children ; and even then there must have been
some danger of the babies being taken to the wrong
mothers.
The poor people in Eouen were at last obliged to send
out of the city all the old men, the women, and the children,
keeping in the town only the fighting men. The English
would not allow these poor creatures to pass their lines ;
they had to live in the trench outside the walls of Eouen.
They had nothing to eat but what they could find there,
chiefly grass. Yet some of them passed the winter in this
way. S6me of the women had little babies bom there.
"When this happened, the people inside the town let down
198 CHARLES VL *[CH.
a basket, in which they drew the baby up into the town,
and had it christened ; they then let it down to its mother
again« At last the town was obliged to yield ; Henry
became master of Eouen, and soon after of all Normandy.
The French people who had seen wars first among
their owii princes, and then against the English all through
the reign of Charles VI., wished for peace at almost any
price, and at last an agreement was made by which it was
settled that Henry should marry a daughter of Charles VI.,
and that when Charles died, Henry should succeed him as
king both of England and France, after which the two
countries should always be governed by the same king,
though each should keep its own laws and customs, and
neither should be subject to the other. The son of Charles
VI. would not agree to this treaty, and still kept up the
war with a small army in the north of France ; but his
mother and the nobles kept their word to Henry, and he
married the French Princess, and ruled in Paris, as regent
for Charles VI. Two years after he died in France,
leaving a little son ten months old, to be king both of
France and of England. A few weeks afterwards died
Charles VI., whose reign had brought such misfortunes
upon himself and his country.
XXX.] CHARLES VIL 199
CHAPTEE XXX.
Charles VII. (1422-1461).
When Charles VI. died, he left a son named like himself
Charles. Henry V., who died, as I said, at just the same
time, had left a son called Henry. By the agreement
which had been made a few years before by the English
and French it had been settled that when Charles died
the son of Henry of England should be king. But the
dauphin, the son of Charles, had never agreed to this, and
had always gone on making war upon the English. He
now began to caU himself Charles VIL, and the people of
the south part of France gathered round him and said
they would have him for their king sooner than the son of
an Englishman, though Henry V/s little baby was half
French, for his mother had been a French princess. The
part of France that had been conquered by the English, in
which Henry VI. was to be king was governed for him by
his uncle, the Duke of Bedford, a wise and brave soldier,
who ruled well, and brought the country into better order
than had been known there for many years.
But the state of France, on the whole, was miserable at
this time. In some parts of the country, everything was
destroyed, woods were growing where there had been
villages, the roads had been all broken up, or become so
200 CHARLES VIL [CH.
1 I r -'■ ' I
rough from want of attention, that no one could travel on
them ; wolves came into the towns to try and find some
child or weak person of whom to make a meal. Still the
war went on, though the English would have done better
at this time to make a peace with the French, taking
some part of the country for their own, and then leaving
the rest and going back to England ; for now that Henry
was dead they had very little chance of conquering the
whole of France, and affairs in England were going very
badly, so that the Duke of Bedford had to go backwards
and forwards between England and France, and could not
attend fully to the affairs of either.
The fighting went on for about five years ; sometimes
one side had the better, sometimes the other. The two chief
battles fought were won by the English; but though many
men were killed in them, they were not of great import-
ance. At last the English resolved to besiege the most
important town in France next to Paris — Orleans, on the
river Loire, almost in a straight line to the south of Paris.
The English had gathered together ten thousand men, and
had begun by taking aU the small places near Orleails, so
that they might send no help to the town. Then the
English army drew close round the town, built forts, and
prevented any food from going in. The people of Orleans
did aU they could to defend themselves, and for some time
they managed to prevent the English from doing their city
much harm, but they soon began to feel the want of food,
and they sent to ask for help from the chief men of
France. But no help came to them either firam the great
lords, who were all busy about business of their own, or
from the king, Charles VII., who was a weak, idle man,
xxxj CHARLES VII. 201
and did not seem to care, so long as he himself was safe
and comfortable, whether or not the second city of his
country fell into the hands of his enemy.
Help did come to Orleans at last, but in a way in
which no one could have expected it. In a little village
in Lorraine, on the east side of France, there lived a
peasant girl named Jeanne D'Arc. She was brought up
like other children by her parents, taking the cows out to
the meadows when she was quite young, and when she
grew older, sitting at home and sewing with her mother,
while her brothers and sisters worked in the fields. She
could neither read nor write, but her mother taught her
all that she herself knew. Jeanne was fond of being
alone, and used often to go to an old beech tree near the
village, where it was supposed that fairies danced by
night Here Jeanne would sit by herself when she wanted
to think quietly. As she grew older, she began to hear a
great deal of the war between England and France, which
brought so much distress and trouble to the people of
France. She knew how many hundreds of Frenchmen
had lost their houses, their lands, their friends, aU that
they cared about, already, and how the war was not yet
nearly over, but seemed likely to go on, no one could tell
how much longer. The king, Charles, had some good
generals who would have fought bravely for him, but he
would not listen to them, and spent all his time in amus-
ing himself.
'Jeanne thought of all this till she longed to do some-
thing to help her countrymen. She began to fancy that
she saw visions, that is, that she thought she saw people
and heard voices which no one else could see or hear. It
202 CHARLES VIL [CH.
I I ■ - - *-! 1 - 1-1 I I ri 11- I ■ ■! in _ IM
v.
seemed at times, always when she was alone, that three
angels appeared to her in a bright Ught, saying, « Jeanne,
go to the help of the King of France, and you will win
back his kingdom for him." The voices also told her to
go to the captain of the town near, and ask him to send
her to the king.
We often read in history of people who have thought,
as Jeanne did, that special messages are sent to them from
God by signs or voices which no one else can hear or
understand. Sometimes such people are out of their
minds, sometimes they are ill, but sometimes, like Jeanne
D'Arc, they are not only in their right senses, but are par-
ticularly wise and sensible people, whose advice is of great
value to everybody. They seem to see strange unusual
sights because their minds are full of strange unusual
thoughts ; they think only of the one thing that interests
them till they become too much excited to see and hear
the common things going on round them, and then imagine
they see something which is not seen by any one else, and
so cannot be said to be really there.
Jeanne talked about her visions to her relations, and
told her parents that she wished to go to court to give the
king a message from heaven and to help him fight his
enemies* They refused for some time to let her go, but
she at last found an uncle who took her to the captain of
the town near at hand, and asked him to send her to the
king. The captain would not hear of it for some time ;
but at last some of the chief people of the place saw her,
and having talked with her, promised to go with her to the
court, i
Charles heard of her, and sent to say he would receive
XXX.1 CHARLES VIL 203
her; the people of the town bought her a horse; the
captain gave her a sword ; and so she set ofif with a few
soldiers to guard her. When she was. presented at the
court, the king had hidden himself among his courtiers,
and put one of them richly dressed on the throne, to see
whether Jeanne would know which was the real king.
She went straight up to Charles, and though at first he
said, to try her, that he was not the king, she declared that
he was, and went on to tell him that she was sent by God
to save his country from the English. At last he was per-
suaded to listen to her, and even to believe what she said.
The first thing she wished to do was to go to the help
of Orleans. The king put her at the head of a body of
soldiers, and sent them on their way* They marched to-
wards Orleans, all the people as they passed through the
country coming out to look at Jeanne in her shining
armour on her fine horse. From this time she always
dressed herself like a man, which was more convenient for
the soldier's life she had to lead.
Jeanne at this time was only seventeen, but she had so
much good sense and power of understanding, that the
captains were glad to have her help and advice, and were
all her friends by the time they came to Orleans, where
they made their way into the town, and were welcomed
with delight by the people. They all looked upon Jeanne
as a saint ; and the English, who had heard so much of
her, were frightened, atid thought she would be able to be-
witch them, or do them harm in some strange way.
The first time that they met her in battle they did not
dare to resist, but gave way before her. She was afraid of
no one ; her friends were always made braver themselves
204 CHARLES VIL [CH.
,- ^ , , ,,| ■!■ ■! ■ II ^_ _ « rr — M^- — I ' ^ I' ~r -
\
by seeing her courage in battle, for she went straight on as
if nothing conld hurt her; and .both her friends and
enemies believed. more and more- that she was a special
messenger sent from God to the help of France.
Orleans was saved by her help. The siege had already
lasted for some time, and the English were tired with the
efforts they had made. They saw that the people of
Orleans were less likely to yield now than before ; the .
English general was killed one day by a shot from the
walls of the town, and at last, a week after Jeanne had
come into the city, the English army left all the forts and
towers that they had built roand Orleans, and marched
away, leaving the town free.
Jeanne had one more great wish. The king had never
yet been solemnly crowned. It was the custom for the
kings of France to be crowned at a place called Bheims,
and Jeanne wished to take Charles to Sheims and have
him crowned king. Charles had been amusing himself
while Jeanne was at Orleans, and made no objection to
anything that was proposed. Most of his advisers thought
that as the English were masters of the country all round
Eheims, it would be too dangerous to try and make their
way there; but the conmion people, who thought the
crowning of the king, which was done with a sort of
religious service and very solemnly, a matter of great im-
portance, agreed with Jeanne, and the great lords were
persuaded to yield. They all went together to Eheims ;
meeting the English on the way, and defeating them in a
great battle. In Sheims itseU there were no enemies ;
the French had only to march in, and they were masters.
Charles was crowned king with Jeanne standing by his
XXX.] CHARLES VIL 205
side, with the standard or flag which she always carried ii>
battle^ instead of a sword, in her hand. Many people,
seeing that Charles had been crowned in this way, while
Henry had not, went over from the side of Henry to that
of Charles.
When this was over, Jeanne wished to go back to her
old home, and live again with her parents. She had now
been away for nearly three months, and she had done the
two great things which she had wished to do for her
countiy-saving Orleans, and having the king crowned.
But the captains of Charles begged her to stay with the
army. They found that the English feared her, and their
own soldiers admired her so much that they thought while
she was with them, they were certain to succeed. Jeanne
agreed to stay, but from this time she was often sad and
disturbed, and was sometimes heard to say, "I shaU not
live for more than a year." '
The English had begun to draw back from many of
the parts of France which they had conquered, and the
people whose country had not ' been conquered were
encouraged to rise up against them. The English still
held Paris, and Jeanne led an army to try and make its
way into that city. Here she failed for the first time;
and she and her men were driven back from the walls.
The favourites of the king were growing jealous of Jeanne;
they found that Charles listened more to her than he did
to them. They began trying to prevent her from winning
any more glory by her victories, and sometimes even
refused to send soldiers out with her, or to listen to her
advice on questions about the war. At last she one day
went with a party of French soldiers outside a town in
206 CHARLES VII. [CH.
which many of the French soldiers were gathered together,
and where she had been staying. The English, with some
of the French who still took their part, were outside the
walls, and Jeanne and her men were surrounded by the
enemy. Most of them made their way back into the city,
but no one stayed to help Jeanne, who had gone on farther
than all the rest. She turned at last, but when she came
to the town she could not get through the gates. Some
writers say that they were shut ; others, that the people
pressing in filled them up, so that she could not make her
way through ; but whatever the reason, she was kept out,
and after trying to escape without being noticed, was
taken prisoner by her enemies.
It was not to an Englishman, but to a subject of the
Duke of Burgundy, a friend of the English, that she gave
herself up, and she was at first kept in a castle belonging
to him, but she was afterwards sold to the English for a
large sum of money.
It shows such ingratitude as one could hardly have
thought possible in the King of France and his chief lords,
that no one did anything to save Jeanne D'Arc. The
English, as soon as she was in their power, brought her up
for trial, as if she had been a criminal, that is, a person
who has done some wrong action, instead of a brave
soldier who had fought for her country. A French bishop
was her chief judge, and all her judges were Frenchmen.
She had no one to defend her ; questions of every kind
were asked her about herself, about her life, her religion,
her visions. The English wished to make her confess that
she was a witch ; she was thrown into prison, and treated
with great cruelty. It was thought very wicked of her to
XXX.] CHARLES VIL 207
/
wear men's clothes instead of women's ; and her having
one day put some on, because the women's clothes had
been taken out of her prison, was one of the excuses for
the horrible sentence which her judges passed on her.
She was sentenced to be burned alive, and the execu-
tion took place at Eouen. Crowds of people, both friends
and enemies, came to see her die, but no one interfered to
help her. She died before she was twenty-one, and is
perhaps the most wonderful woman of whom we read in
all history. It is hard to say how much she might not
have done for Prance, if the king would have made up his
mind to trust her sooner than his vain and jealous
courtiers. As it was, the English never settled themselves
firmly in the country again, and were driven out of it
altogether before the end of Charles VIL's reign, as we
shall hear.
The English had hoped that when Jeanne was dead,
they would no longer find the French able to resist them ;
but the French, soon after, made themselves stronger than
they had ever been before, by making up the quarrels they
had among themselves, and all joining together against the
English. The people of France wished for peace, and
messengers from France and England met several times to
try and arrange it, but always in vain. As usual in time
of war, the boldest and most lawless men formed them-
selves into bands, and went through the country, taking for
themselves whatever they could find, and ruining all the
poor people who were not already ruined by the war. It
seemed as if every one had left off caring not only for law,
but for the common rules of right and wrong. Fathers
and sons, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters,
208 CHARLES VIL [CH.
quarrelled, and put one another to death by poison, or in
more open ways, and this happened in most of the great
families of that time in France.
There was one nobleman, living in Brittany, named
Gilles de Eetz, of whom a horrible story is told. It had
been noticed for some time that a great number of children
who lived in the neighbourhood had disappeared, no one
knew where. They were usually poor children who had
been sent out to keep cattle or to beg, and it was supposed
that they were tempted away by an old woman to some
place from which they never came back. After a time, the
children in a town near at hand began to disappear in the
same way. The people complained to the Duke of Brittany,
and he gave orders that a castle, belonging to one of the
great lords, into which the children were supposed to be
taken, should be searched. This was done, and there was
found in it a pile of bones so large, that it was supposed
that forty children must have been put to death. The
nobleman, to whom the castle belonged, had killed the
children out of wickedness, and amused himself by watch-^
ing their struggles as they died. This was too much to be
borne, even in those days, and the nobleman was put to
death. He was to have been burned, but because he was
a noble, the king agreed that he shoifld be strangled before
the flames touched him.
At about this time there came a change in the character
of the king. Till now he had been so weak that he had
allowed himself to be ruled by the people about him, with-
out taking any notice of what was going on. He had cared
only for amusing himself, and not being troubled to settle
the affairs of the kingdom ; but now at last he began to
XXX.] CHARLES VIL 209
see the miserable state into which the country had fallen,
and the importance of doing something to help his people.
He called together the States-General, and made several
wise laws. One of the first things to be done was to get
rid of the disorderly soldiers who obeyed no one, but spent
their time in robbing peaceful people, and to send them
out of the country.
He first tried sending them to fight in wars that were
going on in different countries of Europe. In these wars
many of them were killed, and France was free from them
for a time ; but Charles wished to make some plan by
which they should be prevented from coming back again
to trouble the country each time that there was a fresh war.
He settled to have what we have now in England, and
what France and most other countries also have, a stand-
ing army — ^that is, an army which should always be kept to-
gether and ready to fight — so that when a war began there
should be no need to call out a number of men with no
one special to command them, and no one to answer for
their behaviour. All the soldiers in the country were to be
always under fixed officers, who should lead them to battle
when they were wanted, and should be punished if their
men disturbed the people of the country, or did harm to
any peaceable person.
The king chose from all his men fifteen of the best and
bravest, and called them his captains. Each captain had
a certain nimiber of men under him, called a company, and
was sent with them to a particular town or part of the
country, which he was to defend and keep in order. All
the men who were not chosen by the king or the captains to
make part of the companies, were commanded to go back
p
210 CHARLES VIL [CH.
to their homes and live quietly, which they did, because
they were afraid to refuse, and so at last the country was
freed fix)m them.
The wax between England and France had gone on all
this time without anything important being done on either
side. Both parties had got tired of fighting at last, and
there had been a truce for two years, but no peace. The
French had, however, won back Paris, and suddenly they
seemed to wake up as if out of a long sleep, and drove the
English almost entirely out of the country. They took the
whole province of Normandy in less than a year, and
Guienne, which is all the southern part of France, in
another year. - The English had only about three towns in
France stiU belonging to them ; one was Calais, which was
theirs for another hundred years ; the others were small
places of no iijjportance. The English were now taken up
with troubles in their own kingdom. The Wars of the
Boses had begun, and from this time they had no thought
or time to spare for what went on in France.
The war between England and France had lasted for
nearly one hundred years, for which reason it is often
called The Hundred Tears' War. It had brought much
trouble upon both nations, and though most Englishmen
must be proud of the memory of the great battles, in which
the French were defeated by the good conduct of the
English, in spite of their small numbers and all the diffi-
culties in their way ; yet no one can help beiag sorry that
this war should ever have been begun.
In the first place, the English king had no right in
France, and therefore the war was an unjust one ; and in
the second place, it would have been a very bad thing for
XXX.] CHARLES VIL 211
England if her kings had succeeded in doing what they
wished, and made both countries one. England, the smaller
coimtry, would soon have been the subject of France. The
French had suffered far more than the English, as all the
fighting had been in their country ; they had also had the
misfortune of being badly governed all the time the war was
going on. It is a gloomy part of history, and the part of
it that is most pleasant to remember is the story of Jeanne
D'Arc, which shows us what the courage and good sense
and virtue of one brave, wise, good person may do, even
when things seem at their very worst, and though the
person may be, what we should think, one of the humblest
and least important of his or her countrymen,
Charles VII. had some trouble with his eldest son, who
joined the great lords in an attack they made against his
father, and was only kept quiet by having a province of
the kingdom given him to rule over. He left even that
at last, being afraid that his father meant to do him some
harm, and went to the court of the Duke of Burgundy, his
father's cousin, who treated him very kindly, kept him
there for some years, and tried to make peace between him
and the king. But Louis, the yoimg prince, would not
trust his father, and Charles, though wishing Louis himself
to come back, said he must not bring with him any of his
friends, several of whom had followed him to the court of
the Duke of Burgundy.
At last King Charles feU iU ; he became very anxious
to see his son again, but Louis still refused to trust him-
seK at the French court. Then some of his enemies per-
suaded the king that the Dauphin's friends wished to
poison him. Charles believed this, and refused to take any
212 CHARLES VIL [CH.
food, even though his younger son tasted it before him.
In this way he starved himseK to death ; after a few days
he became very ill, and at the end of a week he died, at
the age of fifty-eight. He had been king for thirty-nine
years. Charles VII. has been called the WeU-served, and
it is a good name, for very few of the good things that
happened to France in his time were brought about by
him; but he had had many good soldiers and advisers, of
whom you wiU read in othL histories when you are older,
as I have not space here to mention any of them but
Jeanne D'Arc.
XXXI.] LOUIS XL 213
CHAPTER XXXI.
Louis XL (1461-1483).
When Charles VII. died, his son Louis left the court of
the Duke of Burgundy, went at once into France to be
crowned king, and was gladly welcomed by the people.
He held a grand funeral service for his father, and in the
afternoon of the same day went out hunting, for he really
felt nothing but joy that his father should be dead. This
king is known as Louis XL, and he was one of the
strongest kings of whom we ever hear.
He seems to have had scarcely any idea of the mean-
ing of the words right and wrong. If he made a promise,
he did not mean to keep it ; if he wished for a thing, he
never tried to get it openly^ but always in some sly way ;
thinking of a trick to persuade people to do what he
wished. He never believed what any one else said to
him, and sometimes in this way he deceived himself, and
when an honest man told him the truth, fancied that he
was only trying to deceive, and sq did not attend to him.
He usually chose for his friends clever bad men, thinking
that they would be more dangerous than good ones to have
for enemies.
But all these bad things about the king were not
found out at first. In those days they were thought less
214 LOUIS XL [CH.
bad than they are now, because most of the princes and
great men of the time behaved in much the same way,
breaking their promises and mistrusting their servants,
though no one did it so much as Louis XL Therefore his
subjects did not notice the first signs of slyness and faith-
lessness, but they were much displeased at some of the first
acts of his reign, especially at his making them pay a new
set of taxes. He made the nobles angry by sending away
from his court many of them who had been employed by
his father as governors of provinces, or as ministers or ad-
visers. Louis had advisers of his own, but he made little
use of their advice.
He knew a great deal about the affairs of the country,
and could make up his own mind as to what to do in every
case which happened. He listened to what his advisers
said, but always made them agree with him in the end ;
and he was very clever in seeing what would be best for
himself and his kingdom. It was said that no one else
could ever get out of a difficulty so well as he.
One of the people with whom he quarrelled was the
son of the Duke of Burgundy, at whose court he had lived
when he had fled from his father, Charles VIL This
young man, who became Duke of Burgundy when his
father died, was bold, active, warlike, and fond of power.
His great wish was to be more than a duke, to make him-
self a king, and to rule over his own country without
doing homage to any one, or being subject to any other
sovereign. He had for his duchy most of the country
which is now Belgium, and a good deal of what is
Holland, besides some provinces farther south, which now
belong some to France, and some to Germany ; for some
xxxij LOUIS XL 215
of these lands he was vassal to the French king, and for
some to the Emperor of Germany. One idea that the Duke
of Burgundy had was that he might some day be Emperor
himself, for the German Emperor was not, like the French
kings, always the son of the last Emperor, but he was
chosen by the princes of Germany each time an old one
died, so that any one who could please the electors or
choosers had a chance of becoming Emperor. Charles of
Burgundy hoped for this, but never succeeded.
He was always glad to go to war with Louis, thinking
that he might find some chance of making his kingdom
larger by taking in war some of the lands belonging to the
French king. He joined with some of the other great
lords who were displeased with the king, and they all at
once marched towards Paris, one army from the north,
one from the south, one from the east, one from the west.
Louis had very few friends or servants whom he could
trust ; two or three of the great lords still said they were
on his side, but he did not feel sure that they might not
leave him as soon as fighting began. However, he was
obliged to put them over his soldiers, for he had no one
else to help him. He himself, with a body of men, marched
against one of the princes who was coming against him,
and he sent off armies under other leaders against the
other three. He fought the battle of Montleh^ri, in which
neither side was successful, and then Charles of Burgundy
and his friends, one of whom was the brother of King Louis,
all met together, joined their armies, and besieged Paris.
The princes were reaUy fighting against Louis in order
to get what they wanted for themselves ; some wanted to
be ministers m the Government, some to have provinces
216 LOUIS XL [CH.
given them to rule over ; but they all pretended that they
were fighting, not for themselves or their own good, but for
the good of the people of France, that Louis was ill-treating
his subjects, and that they were going to war with him to
make him promise to govern better. They called the war
" The War of the Public Good."
After Louis had been shut up in Paris for some time,
he went out alone in a boat to the tent of Charles of
Burgundy, and called to him to ask if he might land safely.
Charles promised that no harm should come to him, and
he and the king took a walk together on the banks of the
Seine, and arranged a peace by which it was settled that
the king's brother should have the duchy of Normandy
given him for his own, and that the other dukes and
great lords should have other lands or places given to
them; but very little was done for the people for whose,
sake the princes had pretended to have gone to war.
The king chose out thirty-six men who were to inquire
into all the troubles and disorders in the kingdom of which
the nobles had at first complained, and to try to find out
the best way of putting an end to them. But as he was
to choose these men himself, it was not very likely that
they would find fault with anything without his leave,
and so the people would not be much the better for what
they did.
On the whole, however, Louis XI. treated his poorer
subjects well ; he hated the princes more than ever, after
having been obliged to give up so much of his country to
them, and he made friends with the people of the town
sooner than with them, so as to have some one on his
side.
xxXL] LOUIS XL 217
It was a great thing for all the people of France that
the long wars with the English had come to an end. The
States-General were again held in France in the reign of
Louis XI. The people were always glad to see the States
meet, and hoped that it would bring them some good,
either good laws, or the setting right of something wrong,
or some wise plan made by the king and his counsellors
as to what should be done for the country. But often
nothing of this ki^d happened ; the king only promised
good things, and no one was the better for his promises.
This was how it was under Louis XL
Louis had a great dislike to war, which was one of the
many ways in which he was specially imlike his cousin,
Charles of Burgundy. He was very clever at persuading
people, and making them think it would be for their own
good to do what he wished ; and so, when he had a quarrel
with any one, he always wished to go and see him and
have a talk with him, and try if he could not, usually in
some rather sly way, make his enemy agree to what he
wished. In this way he once told Charles, who had now
become Duke of Burgundy, that he should soon come to
pay him a,visit. Charles did not much wish to see Louis,
but promised that if it were his pleasure to come to the
town of Peronne, where Charles then was, and .hold a
meeting there, he might come and go back, again safely.
Louis went to Peronne, and was lodged in a strong tower,
with his Scotch archers to protect him. He always had a
band of these Scotchmen about him, because they were
especially brave men, and being foreigners, were not likely
to join in any plots that his enemies might make against
him, but always stayed faithful to the king. Even with
218 LOUIS XL [CH.
his archers, however, Louis did not like the looks of
Peronne, a strong place, filled with soldiers of the Duke
of Burgundy, in the castle of which another French king,
Charles the Simple, had been put to death about five
hundred years before.
While Louis was thus in the power of Charles, there
cam6 news that some of Charles's subjects had risen up
against him and killed some of his officers, and there was
reason to think that they had been persuaded to do this
by letters from Louis. Charles was furious. He was a
violent, passionate man, and his first idea was to kiU the
King of France. Louis was kept a close prisoner in his
room, without an idea of what might happen to him at
last. He was completely in the power of Charles, who
might have cut off his head if he had chosen, without any
of the king's friends being able to come to his help. This
was what Charles had meant to do, but he was persuaded
at last by his chief counsellor, who was the friend of
Louis, not to do what would have been so base as to harm
in any way a guest who had come to visit him, trusting to
his honour, and to whom he had specially promised that
no harm should happen.
He was at last persuaded to see Louis, and to sign an
agreement with him, by which Louis promised to give up
trying to win. for himseK some of the lands which belonged
to the duke ; and also agreed to march with Charles
against the rebel subjects whom he had himself persuaded
to rise up against the duke. This he did with a body of
his own soldiers, helping the Burgundians to destroy a
city of the name of Lifege, in which the people, who fought
to the cry of " France," were sadly disappointed to find
xxxij LOUIS XL 219
that the French king, instead of coming to their help, as
he had promised to do, was marching against them with
their enemies. After this Louis made peace with his
brother, who had again begun to make disturbances in the
kingdom, and everything seemed quiet.
Louis was much disappointed and provoked at the way
in which be had failed to do as he wished with the Duke
of Burgundy ; he was afraid that his subjects would laugh
at him, and he forbade that any songs, pictures, or ballads,
should be made about his journey to Peronne. He even
ordered that all magpies, owls, and speaking birds should
be brought before him and made to talk, so that he might
find out whether any of his subjects had taught their
birds to cry « Peronne " in mockery of him.
This king, who was always suspecting harm in his ser-
vants, was often betrayed by them. He had one great
friend, a cardinal, whom he had raised from being a
common priest, for no special reason but that he took a
fancy to him, and who is said to have had every fault in the
world except hypocrisy. This man was faithful to Louis
for some years, and then began to write secret letters to
the Duke of Burgundy, trying to make friends with him.
Louis found this out, put the cardinal into prison, and
kept him for ten years in an iron cage, which the cardinal
himself had invented to keep safe prisoners who were
likely to escape.
Louis saw enemies all round him, but he did not give
up hope. His great wish was to make all the people who
were against him quarrel with one another, and in this he
often succeeded. This king had a great respect for the
saints ; he used often to pray to the Virgin Mary and other
220 LOUIS XL [CH.
saints, asking them for help in whatever he was going to
do, or forgiveness for his sins, and promising to make them
presents of offerings in their churches, such as pictures,
tapers, or something of the kind, if they did what he
wished. He ordered that at noon every day a large bell
should ring in all the towns of France, and that every one,
when they heard it, should kneel down, and pray for peace
for the country of France.
At about this time the brother of Louis died, wliich
relieved the king from a great deal of trouble, for his
brother had always been among his enemies, and a year
or two afterwards, Charles, Duke of Burgundy, went into
Germany to fight against some enemies he had there. He
stayed there for the rest of his life, which did not last
much longer ; he only once came back to France to make
war upon Louis, and then did not bring enough soldiers
to do him any harm. He was one day attacking a place
called Nancy ; his soldiers were driven back and many of
them killed. The duke was not seen by any of his men.
The next day they found him, after some search, dead in
a frozen ditch, covered with wounds.
He left only one child, his daughter Mary, who now
became Duchess of Burgundy. All the young princes in
Europe wished to marry her, so as to become masters of
her duchy. Louis was very anxious that she should
marry his little son, who was only seven years old, or, if
she thought him too young, some great French lord ; but
Louis treated Mary so badly in other ways that she would
not listen to his wishes, but married a German prince
instead.
Louis, now began to fall into bad health. He had a
XXXI J LOUIS XL 221
war with Mary of Burgundy and her husband, but it was
his last ; he made peace with them and with every one
else. He added several important provinces to France by
tiie different peaces he made with bis enemies. He then
shut himself up in an old castle he had, put guards aU
round it, and saw no one but his servants. All round his
castle was a moat, and the walls were defended with iron
turrets or towers. No stranger might come in without the
king's leave. Louis lived in this strange way because he
could trust no one ; he had three children, but he did not
care to have them with him. His chief companion was
his doctor, who, afraid that the king might some day put
bim to death, as had happened to so many others of Louis's
favourites, had persuaded him that their lives would last
just the same time, and that if any harm happened to the
doctor the king would die directly afterwards. Louis
therefore took the greatest care of him, and did all that he
could to make his life comfortable. Louis had two other
great friends, — a barber, who was one of his chief advisers,
and a provost, as he was then called, which in this case
really meant an executioner. This man, as may be sup-
posed, was hated by the people. The king would make
biTn a sign that a particular person was to be kiUed, and
as soon as a good opportunity came the provost would
seize him, carry him off prisoner, and hang or drown him
without any kind of trial, or telling any one of what he
was accused. There is a stoiy that the king once pointed
in this way to a captain who came into the room. A
inonk was standing near him, and the provost, mistaking
the king's sign, seized upon the monk as he was leaving
the room, put him into a sack, and threw him into the
222 LOUIS XL [CH.
river. When Louis heard of the mistake, he showed no
sorrow for what had happened, but merely said, " Why,
that was the best monk in my kingdom."
After all this, there is no need to say that Louis was a
bad man. But it must be remembered that he lived in a
bad time, when people thought very differently from what
we do now of the way in which every one, and kings in
particular, ought to behave. Some of his subjects were
sorry when he died. These were the people of the towns
to whom he usually showed kindness, and the men who
wrote books or poetry, for which he cared very much. He
died in his strong castle, at the age of sixty-one, having
been king for twenty-two years. Edward IV. of England
died the same year. Louis had always been the friend of
the Eed Eose, or party of Henry VI. Charles of Burgundy
was the friend of Edward IV.
xxxiij CHARLES VIIL 223
CHAPTER XXXII.
Charles VIIL (1483-1498).
The only son of Louis XI. was fourteen years old at the
time of his father's death. He became king under the
name of Charles VIII. His father had left him to the
care of his sister, the eldest daughter of Louis XL This
princess was twenty-i^wo years old ; her name was Anne,
and she was married to one of the great lords of the coun-
try. She is often spoken of as Madam Anne, and she was
a very important person in France till Charles grew up ;
for he was afraid of her, and could be persuaded by her
and her husband to do anything they liked. In the first
year of the young king's reign the States -General met
together. The nobles and the common people were both
delighted that Louis was dead, and hoped now for more
freedom than they had had before, the nobles especially
thinking that now they should be able to have their own
way whUe there was no king whom they need fear. •
The first question considered by the States was, who
should be regent till the king was old enough to govern.
The princes of the royal family said they had a right to
choose a regent among themselves, and that if the king
was too yoimg to reign, the person who would naturally
have been king after him, if he had no son, should be
224 CHARLES VIIL [CH.
regent. But the deputies of the people said that the
government was trusted to the king by the people for
their good, and that, if he could not for any reason carry it
on himself, it was for the people to trust it to some one
else. However, after much disputing, it was settled that
the king was old enough to manage the affairs of the
country with the help of a council, which he might choose
for himself from among the deputies. What really hap-
pened was that Madam Anne governed the country for
eight years ; for she told her brother what to do, and he
never refused what she wished. She ruled wisely on the
whole; she kept the kingdom quiet, defended it against
all enemies, and was abl^ to lessen the taxes, so as to pre-
vent the poor people from being ruined by what they had
to pay. When Charles was twenty -two, and took the
government upon himself, she gave up all the power to
him, and went to live quietly in her own home with her
husband and children, like any private person. Her
father Louis, when he was alive, used to say of her that
" she was the least foolish woman in the world, for there
is no such thing as a wise woman."
Her brother Charles, unfortunately, was a foolish boy,
and grew up a foolish man.
The States-General, after they had settled the question
about the regent, made complaints to the king of many
things that were going wrong jb the kingdom. The nobles
wanted to have time allowed them to pay their debts, and
to have particular laws made about hunting; the clergy
wanted different arrangements ma4e as to who should
choose the bishops. The common people said that they
were in a state of great distress, and explained to the
XXXII.] CHARLES VIIL 226
king some of the reasons, of which the chief one was the
way in which they were treated by the king's soldiers.
They said-" During thirty-four years the king's troops
have been continually passing through every part of
France, all living on the poor people. The poor labourer
must pay the wages of the man who beats him, who turns
him out of his house, who carries off his food, who makes
him lie on the bare earth. When the poor man has with
great diflSculty, and by selling the coat off his back, man-
aged to pay his taxes, and is comforting himself with the
hope that the little he has left may last for the rest of the
year, then comes a new troop of soldiers to eat and destroy
that little. Not satisfied with what they find in the poor
man's cottage, they force hinn with heavy blows to seek in
the town for white bread, for fish, for groceries, and other
dainty fare ; so that if God did not comfort the poor man,
and give him patience, he would fall into despair. In
Normandy, great and countless numbers have died of
hunger ; others, in despair, have killed their wives, their
children, and themselves. For the want of beasts, men,
women, and children have been obliged to yoke themselves
to the cart.*'
The deputies asked the king to take off some of the
taxes, in order that the people might be a little less poor
and miserable. The king promised most of the things
that were asked of him by his different subjects, and
broke most of the promises. When I say the king, I
mean his sister. Madam Anne, for she was the person
who really decided what should be done.
Several of the great lords were jealous of Madam Anne,
and wished to take some of her power from her for themr
226 CHARLES VIII. [CH.
selves. One in particular, the Duke of Orleans, the king's
nearest relation next to his sisters, put himself at the head
of the league ; and they collected a great army, and made
Mends with the King of England and the Emperor of
Germany, and expected easily to get the better of Charles
and Anne. But Anne was too strong for them; she
marched with an army, first into the south of France, then
into the west ; at last her soldiers fought a great battle
against her enemies the princes, and won it. The Duke
of Orleans, and some of the great lords, were taken
prisoners.
The Duke of Brittany had been one of Anne's great
enemies : he died, leaving only a daughter to be duchess
after him. Most of the young princes and lords in all the
countries roimd wished to marry the Duchess of Brittany,
and be master of her lands, but Madam Anne managed to
persuade her to marry King Charles ; and though they had
no children, it happened three times running that the T^ing
of France married the lady to whom Brittany at the time
belonged ; so that at last Brittany came to be completely
part of France, and had no more dukes of its own, as had
happened to Normandy and Toulouse and Burgundy, and
the other great provinces which are now joined together
to make up what we know as France. When Charles
married he was about twenty-one years old, and he now
said that he was old enough to govern for himself, so his
sister and her husband went to live in their own province
as private people, and left him to manage his government
as best he could.
At this time happened a war, which was an important
one for all Europe. All the wars of France had till now
XXXII.] CHARLES VIIL 227
been either wars between the king and his great barons, or
wars with England ; the French had not fought with any
other nation on the Continent. Each country there had
been too much taken up with its own affairs to mind those
of others. But now, for the first time, one great nation on
the Continent began a war with another, and the conse-
quences lasted for hundreds of years. One of the great
lords in Italy wrote to Charles VIII., and invited him to
come and make himself master of several of the Italian
cities, which, it was said, wished to have some new ruler
over them, and would receive Charles gladly. There was
no one King of Italy, but there were a great number of
princes, dukes, marquises, and counts, all ruling over a
larger or smaller part of the coimtry. Some had only a
few towns belonging to them, some a great many, some a
province, some several provinces. They often quarrelled
among themselves, and any one of them who made himself
stronger than the others was apt to wish to make himself
master and king of the whole country. Some of the
princes wished that there should be one king of the whole
country, and others wished that there should not be one,
not liking the idea of any one more important than them^
selves. Many of them were inclined to make friends with
Frsoice. Charles had invitations from two or three Italian
towns to come and rule over them. Against the advice
of his . sister Anne, and some of his best councillors, he
gathered together a large army, and set off for Italy.
A great many of the cities received him gladly ; the
people usually asked him to make them certain promises,
to all of which he agreed, without even taking the trouble
to understand what they were, so that his promises were
228 CHARLES VIII. [ch.
often broken. The people found this ont by d^rees ; and
when they saw the sort of man he was, were mnch less
eager than they had been to have him for their king.
Several of the cities joined against him. He had sncceeded
better than any one would have thought possible ; he had
taken Bome and Naples, and most of the other chief cities
of Italy, and had made a treaty with the Pope, who had at
first disliked his coming into Italy. But seeing the Italians
turn against him, he thought it best to retreat. He divided
his army into two parts, left one to defend what he had
taken in Italy, and led the other back into France. He
had to fight one great battle, when the enemy caught him
up, and attacked him as he was leaving the country ; but
he was the conqueror, and came safely back to France.
The Italians then attacked the general Charles had left
behind him ; they succeeded in taking from the French all
they had won, and at last, in driving them out of the
coimtry. The whole war was over in two years from the
time when it began. The French had not gained anything
by it, but it had made them think of Italy, and wish to be
masters there ; and other wars were made there by other
French kings, as we shall see.
After Charles YIII. came back to France he spent a
good deal of time in amusing himself and Kving idly, going
from one place to another to hold tournaments, and to
feast and make merry, and thinking of nothing else. But
suddenly he grew more serious; he began to mind the
government of the country, to attend to public business, to
listen to preachers, and to try not to spend more money
than had been allowed him by the States-General But
he did not live to carry out his good plans. One day he
XXXII.] CHARLES VIIL 229
went with his queen to see a game of tennis played in the
moat of the castle. He had to pass through a low, dark
gaUery, and he hit his head against a doorway. He did
not seem hurt at the time, but went on, watched the tennis,
and talked cheerfully to everybody, tiU suddenly he fell
down fainting. He was too iU to be taken back to his
own rooms ; they put him on a mattress in a room close
by, which was the dirtiest in all the castle, and there, after
nine hours of illness, Charles VIII. died. He was not a
great king, nor a great man, and he brought no good to
France. His reign was short; he died before he was
twenty-eight years old.
230 LOUIS XIL [CH.
CHAPTEE XXXIII.
Louis XIL (1498-1515).
Charles left no son. He had three, but they all died as
children, and his cousin, the Duke of Orleans, became king
after him, and was called Louis XII. The wife Charles
had left behind him, Anne, who had been Duchess of
Brittany before he married her, was very unhappy at his
death. She crouched down in a comer of her room, and
did nothing but sob when her friends came to try and
comfort her. People said it was not so much her husband
she cared for as the pleasure and glory of being queen ;
and it certainly seemed as if this were true, for in less
than two months she had persuaded Louis to marry her,
and was Queen of France once more. Louis had another
wife, but she was ugly and deformed, and he had never
cared for her. The Pope gave him leave to divorce her —
that is, to send her away frorri being his wife. She, poor
thing, knew that it was of no use to resist, and went away
into a convent, where she spent the rest of her days in
doing good deeds, and was considered a saint by the people.
She had been a sister of Charles VIII. and of Madam
Anne, who had governed his kingdom so weU for him.
Louis XIL, by marrying Anne, became master of Brit-
tany, as Charles had been ; but it was settled that if Anne
XXXIII.] LOUIS XII. 281
had children Brittany would not belong to the eldest son,
who would be King of France, but to one of the other
children, so that it might be kept a distinct province by
itself. Louis, though he had behaved so unkindly to his
first wife, was on the whole a kind, good-hearted man.
He punished none of the people who had been his enemies
in the last reign. When some of his friends advised him
to do so, he refused, saying, " It would not become the
King of France to revenge the quarrels of the Duke of
Orleans." You remember that he had been Duke of
Orleans before he was King of France. By this kindness
he soon made friends with all the chief people of the
country, and all through his reign he had no disturbances
of any kind in France.
Very soon after he became king Louis called together
an assembly of some of the wisest among his subjects, and
with their help he made a set of laws called an ordonrumce,
changing and improving many of the arrangements for
doing justice, about which he was always very anxious.
After this he unfortunately did as Charles VIII. had done
before him, and began another Italian war.
There was one town in the north part of Italy named
Milan, which had belonged to the great-grandfather of
Louis, and Louis always called himself Duke of Milan, and
hoped, with the help of some of his friends among the
Italian princes, to make himself master of the town. He
collected a great army, and marched across the Alps into
Switzerland. Many of the States that had fought against
Charles VIII. were quite willing to help Louis, and he
became master of Milan without having had to fight any
great battle.
232 LOUIS XIL [CH.
Louis went back to France well pleased at his success^
but as soon as iie^was gone the Duke of Milan came back
with an army, and tried to win back his town. At first
it seemed as if he would succeed. All the towns through
which he passed turned out the French, and gave them-
selves up to their duk6. It was said that he won back his
country even more quickly than he had lost it. But Louis
heard of what was happening, gathered a large army, which
could now be done easily in France, because of the regi-
ments tod captains always ready for use, as I told you,
r
and marched with them into Italy again. The duke Louis
Sforza of Milan shut himself up in a town with his
soldiers.
Amo6ff the duke's soldiers 'was a body of Swiss. It
was the custom at that time for auy king or prince who
wanted soldiers to hire some from Switzerland. The Swiss
were fierce, brave, fond of fighting, and their country being
very poor they were always glad to earn money by fighting
for any one who would pay for soldiers. It sometimes
happened in a battle that there were Swiss on both sides,
and so it was now.
These men soon met and made a bargain together ; the
Swiss who were paid to fight for the duke, and some of
the other soldiers on the same side, agreed to give up the
town to the French, in return for which it was promised
that they and aU that belonged to them should be safe.
They made no agreement that the duke, their employer,
should be safe. When they yielded up the town next
morning, and were marching out with the French soldiers
watching them, the duke disguised himself as a Swiss
soldier and marched with the others, hoping that no one
XXXIII.] LOUIS XI L 233
would notice him; but the French, sy^ecting that he
might do this, made them go out by twos and threes, so
that each man might be examined as he passed. Still,
perhaps, the duke might have passed safely, but that some
of his soldiers were persuaded by.a present of money to
point him out to the French. He was taken prisoner,
carried to France, and very badly treated by Louis, who
was usually kind and merciful to every one. He was kept
in one of the horrible iron cages which had been invented
in the reign of Louis XI.
One great man had distinguished himself in this Italian
war. He was a knight named Bayard, one of the bravest
and at the same time the best of the French soldiers, who
is sometimes spoken of as the knight without fear and
without blame. He was bom at an old castle, called like
himself Bayard, and there he had lived with his parents
till he was fourteen, when his uncle, a bishop, had come to
stay at the castle, and offered to take his nephew away
with him and find him some place at court or in the army,
from which he might rise to higher things.
The boy was delighted to go. His uncle gave him a
horse ; the tailor of the place sat up all night to make him
handsome clothes " of velvet, satin, and other things need-
ful to clothe a good knight." The next morning, when he
was ready to set off, his mother came down to say good-
bye to him. She gave him a purse with six crowns of
gold in it, and also gome good advice, which very likely
helped to make him the great and good man he afterwards
became ; for she told him to bear himself wisely and well,
to Ipve and serve God, to be courteous to his equals ai^d
merciful to the poor, to teU the truth, and be loying and
1»4 LOUIS XIL [CH.
faithfuL After this Bayard became a page in the court of
the Duke of Savoy, and in time a soldier.
A year or two later there was another Italian war, but
in this Louis was less fortunate than before. At first
everything seemed to 50 well with him, and he and the
King of Spain, who was helping him, took Naples and
some other Italian towns from the King of Naples ; but
when they had done this they began to quarrel about
dividing the land which had become theirs. After long
disputes the French and Spaniards began to fight with
each other, and at last the French were driven entirely
out of the country, and the Spaniards kept everything for
themselves, so Louis XII. had not gained much for his
country by this war, which had cost much money and the
lives of so many brave soldiers.
Louis had only one child, a daughter, and the queen
was very anxious that she should marry the young man
who was going to be King of Spain. But the French
lords did not wish that Spain and France should belong to
the same person, and said that it would be better for the
princess to marry the greatest of the French lords, the man
who, if Louis should have no Son, would be the next King
of France. Louis did not like to disappoint his wife, and
at first agreed that the marriage should be as she wished
it, but when he thought himself dying he considered how
much trouble he should bring upon his people if he did
anything which was likely to make a war between France
and Spain, and he changed his mind and made a will
saying that his daughter should marry the French prince
as soon as she was old enough. When he grew better he
called together the deputies of the Three Estates, and
XXXIII.] JLOUIS XU. 235
asked them for advice. They all wished that his daughter
should be betrothed to Francis, the young French prince,
which was done. It was at this time that the deputies
first called Louis the Father of his People, the name by
which he has since been known, and on hearing which, he
was so much delighted that he wept for joy.
There was one more Italian war; this time France
joined with several others of the Italian states against one
state named Venice, and, as usual, he succeeded very well
at first, and took a great deal of the country, but afterwards
the Italians all joined together against him, and Henry
VIII. of England came to help the enemies of Louis.
Henry was quite young, and had only just become king.
He was a bold, warlike young prince, and beat the French
in a battle called the battle of the Spurs, because the French
used their spurs to run away with more than their swords
to fight with. The French were also driven quite out of
Italy, so that they had no land at all belonging to them
there. If it had not been for the Italian wars, Louis XII.
would have been a good king ; much that he did was good,
and when he died, which happened soon after the end of
the war, his people grieved for him, and the ringers went
through the streets soimding their beUs and crying in a
sad voice, ** The good King Louis, the father of his people,
is dead.**
He left no son.
236 FRANCIS L [ch.
CHAPTEE XXXIV.
Francis I. (1515-1547).
The next king was the cousin of Louis XII., who had
married his daughter. Francis I. was at this time a young
man — ^handsome, brave, gay, fond of war, glory, and apiuse-
ment. Louis XII. had always been afraid that when
Francis came to be king he would disturb the arrange-
ments which Louis had made for governing the kingdom,
and would think only of his own amusement, not of the
good of the country. He used to say, " That bouncing boy
will spoil everything." The father of Francis was dead ;
his mother, a very clever, but not a wise or good woman,
spoilt him completely. She thought him the greatest man
in the world, and helped him to take his own way in
everything. She used to call him " my peaceful Csesar "
before he had fought any battle, and as soon as he had
won one victory, "my glorious, triumphant Caesar."
Francis had also a sister named Margaret, who lo"^ed him
as well as his mother did, but who was an excellent
woman, and whose advice was always for his good and the
country's. She wrote poetry, and was fond of all learned
men ; she often persuaded Francis I. to protect people who
were hated for having a different religious belief from
their neighbours. She could often persuade Francis to
< ..
xxxivj FRANCfS L 237
- -
do as she wished, when he would not listen to Jiny
one else.
The reign of Francis I. is a very important time, not
only in the history of France, but in the history of the
whole world. Two men lived at that time, both of whom
gave much trouble to the French king, and, though they
were not Frenchmen, made so much change in the affairs
of all Europe, that I must say a little about each of them.
The first I shall mention was the young prince who, sdon
after Francis began his reign, became King of Spain. He
was the grandson of the Emperor of Germany, and when his
grandfather died two years later, wished to be emperor in
his place. The Emperor was chosen by seven of the chief
princes in Germany, and the King of Spain hoped to be
able to persuade them to choose him, though he was only
eighteen, and had not then showed any signs of being
likely to become a specially wise or brave king. Francis
also wished to be Emperor, and made friends with several
of the electors, as the princes were called who had the right
of choosing or electing the Emperor.
Others, however, took the side of the Spanish king,
whose name was Charles, and after he and Francis had
both said all they could, and made handsome presents to
the electors, each trying to persuade them to be on his side,
it was settled that Charles would be most likely to make
a good emperor, and he was solemnly invited to come and
govern Germany, to his great joy and Francis's deej) dis-
appointment. Charles, known as Charles V., had now far
more land belonging to him than aiiy other prince in
Europe. Spain was his, and Germany and Austria, and
the country which is now Holland and Belgium, and a
238 FRANCIS I. [CH.
good deal of land in the west, where first Columbus, and
then other sailors and soldiers from Spain, had discovered
and conquered islands in the seas near America, and at
last part of America itself, for the Spanish kings.
Charles gave Austria to his brother, but all the rest of
the empire he kept for himself! As he grew older, his
neighbours began to grow more and more afraid of him.
Seeing him so much stronger than they, they feared he
might wish to grow stronger still, and take their lands from
them^ However, he had too much to do in his own
country to attack other people of his own accord. His
empire was too large to be ruled easily, disturbances were
always rising up in one or another part of it, and if Charles
had not been active, industrious, and very clever, he could
never have kept it all imder his rule through his lifetime
as he did. He was a thoughtful, grave, and prudent young
man, very different in every way from the gay, cheerful
Francis, who cared more for war and amusement than
for anything else. Francis, all through his reign, had to be
on his watch against Charles V. ; they had three wars toge-
ther, and on the whole, Charles had the best of the struggle.
The other man who made himself important in Europe
at this time was a very different person from the great
emperor and the gay French king. He was a German
monk, and his name was Martin Luther. This was the
man who first taught the faith which is now believed by
all Protestants ; and pointed out the mistakes and evils
that had grown up among the believers of the faith which,
till then, had been held by almost all Christians. Half
the countries of Europe gave up their old beliefs to follow
what he taught, and in some countries his followers are
XXXIV.] FRANCIS I. 239
still called Lutherans, after his name. There were several
important differences between the old and the new ideas.
The one which has most to do with history was the
different way of thinking about the Pope.
The Pope, to begin with, had been only Bishop of
Eome, and one of four bishops who were over all the
others, and were all four very important people. But in
time the other three bishops were forgotten, and became
no greater than all the others, while the Bishop of Bome
was more and more looked up to, and treated with
respect, first by all Italy, then by all Europe. He was
called Pope, which means father, and was a common
name at that time for many bishops ; but the Bishop of
Bome was the only one who has kept it till the present
time. In early days the Pope chose all the other chief
bishops in all the countries of Europe, settled all religious
disputes, and had the power of excommunicating kings
and laying countries under an interdict.
As his power grew greater, the people in distant
countries began to respect him more and more, and by
degrees the idea grew up that the Pope was the wisest
and best man in the world. Then people began to think
that he was so wise and good that he could never make a
mistake or do anything wrong. This was partly because
Bome, where the Pope lived, was the home of the strongest
and wisest people that had ever been known, and the
people in the other countries of Europe were wild and
ignorant, and understood Uttle about religious matters.
When they grew wiser and became as strong and import-
ant as the Italians, they left off believing so much in the
wisdom and goodness of the Pope.
"V."
240 FRANCIS I. ' [CH.
But still the popes had held their power for so many
years, that it would have been a diflScult thing to turn
the people against them, if they had used their great
power welL But in the time of Martin Luther they had
come to use it in many ways very ilL The Pope, at that
time, was in great want of mbney, as he often was, and he
had many plans for getting some. He had often asked
for it from the clergy in the different countries of Europe.
The kings of such countries did not like the clergy to~pay
away great sums to the popes, because less money ^as"^
left for the bishops to give them when thejr -wanted it
for wars or any other purpose. The kings and popes had
often had great disputes as to whether all the clergy wer6
the subjects of the Pope, or whether each was the subject '
of the king in whose country he lived, as happens with
( other people.
But just at this time the Pope had a plan for making
the common people give him money. It had always been
thought that the Pope had the power of settling who was
good and who was bad. If any one wrote a book which
was thought wicked, it was sent to the Pope for him to
say whether people were to be allowed to read it or not.
If any one had displeased the Pope, he was punished by
excommunication, as has been already described ; besides
all the unpleasant things which happened to the excom-
municated person in this life, it was thought that if the
Pope did not at last forgive him, he would be punished in
another world after his death. Any one who haJ^been ^
forgiven for a sin by the Pope believed that he should be
forgiven by Grod. It was next said that after people were
dead the prayers of the Pope were still useful for them,
'i ■•
XXXIV.} FRANCIS L .241
4
■ • n '
and people paid him sums oi money to persuade him to
say these prayers for their relations. A man was sent
through Germany, in the reign of Francis, with pardons
ready printed on paper. Any one who paid him a certain
sum of money could have one of these pardons from the
Pope, either for something wrong they had done them-
selves, or for some sin of some of their Mends, or they
oould buy the Pope's prayers for the jsoul of any one who
was dead. It made many people extremely angry to see
this being done. The Pope was now thinking only of
making money for himself^ and not at ^ of whether what
he was teaching people was right and true, for forgiveness
' is not a thing that can be bought ; and after a man is
deapl, the Pope knows no more than any one else what God
may do with the soul He alone has created.
Many people spoke and wrote against selling the
pardons, but the man who spoke most ajid was listened to
most was Martin Luther. He had been a monk, and had
been taught everything that was then believed to be true
about the best way to please God and live a good life, as
weU as about the power of the Pope ; but he was not
satisfied with what he was taught, and saw reasons for
thinking that his teachers made mistakes. He explained
his own ideas first in giving his reasons for disliking the
sale of pardons, and he went on to teach and to write
books about what people ought to believe, and about the
wickedness of the Pope and his court. Every one listened
to him, many people were pleased, many were furious, and
there were wars and disturbances, for many years, and all
through the greater part of Europe, while one nation after
another was deciding the question whether they should
R
t
242 FRANCIS I. [CH.
think as they had always been taught to do before, and
submit to the Pope as they had done, or whether they
should resist the Pope and accept the new ideas which
Luther taught, and which, by degrees, more and more
people came to think were the true ones.
I cannot explain here the difiference between what
Luther thought and what the Pope and his clergy thought.
It was almost the same difference there is now between
the people called Boman Catholics and those called Pro-
testants. Some Protestants now think just what Luther
thought, and others nearly the same. Some people agreed
with Luther in disliking the great power of the Pope, and
thiiiking that it ought to be stopped, without agreeing to
his other opinions, and becoming Protestants.
Francis of France was one of these. The Popes had "
never had/the same power yi France that they had in'
some other countries. The king 'often resisted them, and .
the French clergy ofbeil took the side of their king.
Many of Luther's friends came into France to teach
there, and in some parts they found friends, in others ^
enemies. Their enemies, some of whom were bishops and
people in power, were so angry with them that they would
have put many of the Protestant teachers to death, if
Margaret, Francis's sister, had not helped them, and per-
suaded the king to treat them welL Some of the people
listened to them and became reformers, which was the
name first given to those who agreed with Luther's ideas,
because they wished to reform, that is make better, the
people about them and themselves.
The king, however, and the greater number of his sub-
jects went on believing the old teaching, as they had done
XXXIV.] FRANCIS L 243
before. Francis ha:d not much time to think about such
things, for he was very often at war; and when not, was
amusing himseK, buying pictures or building fine palaces,
and he did not care to spend time in thinking quietly
about serious subjects. It was less trouble to him, of
course, to go on with his old ideas than to think about
changing them; and this he did, and had his children
brought up in them as weU.
When some of the people in a town became reformers,
there were sure to be disputes and often fights between
them and their fellow-townsmen. For one thing, Luther's
followers were made angry by the little statues and images
before which people in those days were accustomed to say
their prayers ; and they often broke or spoilt them by way
of showing that they were only statues and images.
The Boman Catholics, for their part, were made
extremely angry when the Protestaiits did any harm to
the images about which they cared so much, and there
were fights in the streets in which people often lost their
lives. Francis always took the side of those who defended
the images, and when a special favourite of the people's
had been pulled down, the king went in great state to
set up another in its place, and punished very cruelly the
people who had hurt it. On the other hand, he did what
he could to prevent the people who believed in the new
ideas fix)m being ill-treated by their neighbours so long ad
they lived quietly.
But the worst act of his reign was the way in which
he ill-treated a set of people who had found out for them-
selves a form of belief, much like that which Martin
Luther taught.
244 FRANCIS L [CH.
In some of the valleys of the Alps lived a tribe of
people known as the Vandois. They had been driven
into the mountains by the Albigensian wars in the reign of
Philip Augustus.
There they and their children had lived for nearly four
hundred years without being disturbed by any one ; but
with a different belief from that of their neighbours, the
people who lived in one of the southern provinces of
France. They were quiet and industrious, so that the
great lords in the country near protected and employed
them, and at last some of them came down to live in the
land at the foot of the Alps, where they built two towns
and thirty villages, planted trees, sowed grain and fruit,
and brought up cattle, till they made their little comer one
of the most fertile parts of the province. These people
had made friends with the reformers, whose opinions were
so nearly the same as their own.
Francis at one time had sent messengers to find out
what they did believe and what sort of life they led, and
the accoimt of them was so good that for some time they
were not disturbed.
At last, however, the bishops, who were his friends, and
the Emperor, with whom he had just made a peace, began
^ reminding him of these heretics, and telling him that they
would do some harm to the coimtry if they were allowed
to go on living as they had done. The king allowed him-
self to be persuaded ; he wrote to the governor of the pro-
vince and told him to clear it entirely of the heretics.
Several bands of fierce soldiers were sent against the poor
Vaudois, who had no means of helping themselves, and
who did not even know that the king was angry with
XXXIV.] FRANCIS I. 245
>
them. When the soldiers came to the nearest villages
they set them on fire, and put to death every one they
found in them, men, women, and children alike.
The Vaudois in other villages seeing this, fled into the
woods ; the soldiers, when they came up, burned the vil-
lages, cut down the fruit-trees, spoiled the crops, and killed
any of the people whom they could find. This happened all
through the country ; the people were killed in horrible
ways ; village after village, and the two towns were burned.
In one of the towns was found a young man who was an idiot,
and had stayed behind, when every one in their senses
had fled for safety. He was shot. In the other town
several inhabitants were found ; they gave up the town,
and a promise was made that their lives should be spared ;
but as they were heretics the promise was broken, and they
were all put to death. The women of the town were shut
up in a bam and burned. More than three thousand people
were killed, and others had wandered off into the woods.
A law was made that no food or shelter was to be
given to a Vaudois, so that numbers of them died of hunger,
others made their way into other coimtries, and some were
caught by their enemies and put to death, or carried off to
serve in the French armies. This treatment of the Vaudois
is worse than anything else which happened in Francis's
reign. It is an example of the way in which stronger
men often behaved to weaker, who thought differently
from them about religious questions. Unhappily, there
are many such examples in French history. This chapter
has been more about the Eeformation than about the
special events in the reign of Francis, who must therefore
have another chapter to himself.
246 FRANCIS L [CH.
CHAPTEE XXXy.
Francis I. — (contintied).
1615-1547.
Soon after Francis became king, he settled to go on with
the war in Italy/ which had answered so badly for Charles
VIII. and Louis XII. He was not more successful than
they in the end, but he began by winning the victory of
Marignan* against some Swiss who had come to help his
enemies in Italy. The chief Italian cities had joined to-
gether against him, and a Spanish army had come to their
help ; but after this battle, Francis* without any more
fighting, gained two of the towns for which he most cared ;
the Swiss went away home, and Francis went back to
France, where his people admired him more than ever, and
where he began to turn his mind to the business of govern-
ing the country. Unhappily, he chose a bad man to be
his chief minister, and so brought great troubles upon his
people. His mother, too, who was a friend of the minister's,
often made things go ill by her meddling and dishonesty.
After Francis had been king about three years, his first
quarrels with Charles V. began. Both Francis and Charles
were anxious to have the King of England, Henry VIII., on
their own side. Francis had begun by making friends with
Wolsey, one of Henry's chief ministers, and with him he
had agreed that there should be a meeting between Henry
I
I ■ ii 1 9^ m I
XXXV.] FRANCIS I, 247
arid Francis of a very splendid kind, where they would talk
over their disputes and try to settle theln in a friendly
way. A place in France was chosen for this meeting.
Henry was to come over with his chief barons, and a great
train of followers. They were to bring their tents with
them, and Francis wrote to propose to Wolsey that the
English king should give orders that his tents should not
be too expensive, and said he would give the same orders
to his French nobles. But the English ministers would
not hear of this, and said everything should be as grand as
possible. After this the only question was which nation
would show the greatest riches and splendour. Tents
were set up with the walls and ceiling of precious stuflfs,
such as satin and cloth of gold ; golden trees were arranged
round them with leaves of green silk ; the English palace
was made entirely of crystals, which flashed in the sun-
light. The great lords, but especially the English, wore
handsome dresses of silk and velvet, covered with gold
chains and jewels of different kinds.
Francis's sister Margaret and other French ladies came
to see the tournament with which the meeting was to
open. The kings both joined in it, Henry so roughly that
he killed the man who was fighting against him, and hurt
his own horse so that it died in the night. The next
morning Francis went to Henry's tent very early, while
Henry was still in bed. It had been arranged that the
two kings should never meet except in a solemn way,
arranged beforehand, great care being taken to prevent
either of them from doing harm to the other by taking him
prisoner or putting him to death ; for people remembered
how the Duke of Burgundy had been murdered on a bridge
248 FRANCIS I. [CH.
while making a treaty with his enemy before one of the
Dauphins of France, and they were afraid of the same
thing happening again.
But Francis, who was brave and generous to people of
his own rank, and never would have done harm to an
enemy of his own class who could not defend himself,
trusted to Henry's honour, and took with him only two
gentlemen and a page. Outside the English tent he met
two hundred archers on guard, and asked for the king.
" He is asleep," they said. Francis knocked at the door
and went in. Henry was surprised, but said, "You do
right to trust me," and gave Francis a rich coUar. ".I
will be your valet," said Francis, giving Henry a bracelet
of precious stones, and helping him to put on his clothes.
After this meeting the kings soon became friends, and
treated each other quite familiarly. One day when they
were watching a wrestling match going on before the
ladies, Henry seized Francis's collar and said, "Let us
wrestle." Henry was the stronger of the two, but Francis
was the more active ; he threw down Henry, at which the
English king was much vexed. After aU, the two kings
did not settle much at this meeting, which is known as
the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in honour of aill the splen-
did stuffs that had been shown there. Francis had not
even done what he most wished, made Wolsey and Henry
inclined to take his side against Charles.
Charles came to meet them on their way back to
England, and treated them in a humble respectful manner
which pleased them, and made Wolsey his firm friend.
As Wolsey had much power over Henry, this was a great
success for Charles.
XXXV.] FRANCIS I.. 249
: , ■ , — ^
I
Soon after this tlie old Emperor died, and it was then
that Francis and Charles both wished to be chosen as the
new Emperor. Charles was successful, and two years
afterwards the first war between Francis and Charles
began. Charles tried to take Milan and the part of Italy
which Francis had won by his first victory, away from the
French king, Francis's general was able to do nothing,
because the queen, his mother, took away for herself the
money which the king had meant to be used in the war.
She also quarrelled with one of the king's most powerful
relations and subjects, the Duke of Bourbon. Francis had
treated him lQ, and the queen treated him worse, till at
last he forgot his duty to his king and his country, and
made Mends with Charles V. He left France and joined
one of the Emperor's armies.
Francis, finding his general driven out of Italy, marched
there himself, at the head of a large and fine army, against
the advice of his ministers at home. He went to besiege
a town named Pavia, in which was the Spanish general
with a body of his men ; while Francis with his troops
waited outside the town, an army of Germans came up
outside him to help the Spaniards in Pavia. The king
between the two armies was obliged to fight under great
difl&culties. The battle was so fierce at one time that it is
said, " You could see nothing but heads and arms flying in
the air." Some of the Spanish troops ran backwards to
find shelter from the guns of the French ; Francis, thinking
that they were yielding, rushed out from the camp, and
went on farther and farther, not noticing that his army
was not following him, and that the Spaniards were getting
in between him and the camp. He had only a small body
250 ^ FRANGIS L {en.
, ■
of followers, his enemies gathered round him, his horse was
killed, and at last he gave up his sword to one of the
Spanish officers. He was treated with great respect ; his
enemies admired his bravery so much, that they kept bits
of his clothes and of his armour as relics.
The French army, after the king was taken, had been
utterly defeated, all the commanders who had not been
killed were prisoners, and many of the chief nobles of
France were either dead or dying. The soldiers who were
left alive wandered back into France, many of them dying
on the way from hunger and misery. The king was carried
from one prison to another, and at last to Madrid in Spain.
As soon as he was made prisoner, Francis wrote to his
mother a letter, in which he told her that he had lost
everything except his life and his honour, begged her to
govern the country prudently for him, and said he still
hoped that God would at last help him out of his troubles.
He stayed in prison for nearly a year, after which he
could bear it no longer, and agreed to a peace with Charles,
by which he promised to give back to the Emperor some
of the lands which were then his, and to give up trying to
conquer others, which he had always till now said ought
to belong to him. Francis was to go back to his coimtry,
and send his two eldest sons, the Dauphin and the Duke
of Orleans, to stay as prisoners till he should have done all
that he promised.
But when he made these promises the king had no idea
of keeping them. He rode off into France, sent his little
boys to take his place, and calling together some of his
nobles, told them of the promises he had made, and asked
their advice as to whether or not he should keep them.
I >
XXXV.] ^ FRANCIS L 251
saying that he could not give away a part of the country
without the people of the country agreeing to it. This was
only his plan to find an excuse for refusing to keep his
word. The nobles told him as he wished, that he had not
the power of giving away any part of France without their
leave, and that they would not allow him to do so. They
said that Charles had obliged him to make the promise
against his will, and that therefore he was not bound to
keep it Francis was not a man who would have paid
any attention to the wishes of his subjects imless they had
been the same as his own ; but he made them an excuse to
give Charles for breaking his word, and the war went on
as before.
We hear little of how the young French princes, who
were quite children, were treated in Madrid. It may be
thought that it was very unkind of the king to go away
safely himself and leave his little boys to stay in prison
for his sake ; but we must remember how important it was
for the whole kingdom that the king should be at liberty,
and also that it was much more unpleasant for him to be a
prisoner than for the children. They had each other, and
a body of French servants to wait on them, and we may
hope that they were not imcomfortable, on the whole.
They went back to their home three years afterwards,
when a peace was made between Francis and Charles,
called the ladies' peace, because it was arranged by two
ladies, the king's mother on one side, and the emperor's
sister on the other. Francis, in making this peace, thought
only of his own affairs, and did not try to get anything
they wished for his allies, the people who had helped him
in the war.
252 FRANCIS L fcH.
The people of France, meanwhile, were by no means
well off. The mother of the king kept for her own use
the money that should have be6n spent on the affairs of
the kingdom, and as so much had been used for the war,
the taxes were heavier than ever. There were five bad
seasons one after another/ in which no frost came all the
winter. The insects not being killed by the cold increased
in number till they became a plague, eating all tlie fruits
and grain. The peasants had to satisfy themselves with
what they could find in the fields, with thistles, mallows,
and weeds; they made bread of fern -roots, beech -masts,
and acorns. While the poor people were in this distress,
the king's court and the nobles were rich enough to spend
money upon all sorts of amusements and strange fancies.
There is a list of the way in which Francis spent his
private money the year before peace was made with
Charles. He bought pictures, musical instruments, jewels,
diamonds, and pearls, a splendid bronze horse and rider,
rare trees, some creatures for a menagerie, " eight horses,
four camels, six ostriches, a lion, eleven pair of birds, eight
hares," and a horse for the king's cook, that he might be
always near the king to make his soup. A great deal was
spent on fine buildings, but nothing for the good of his
country, or to help his poor subjects in their distress.
A few years later another war began with Charles.
Francis, seeing that Charles had many more friends than
he had, made a treaty with the Turks, who at that time
had become very strong, both by land and sea, and who
often attacked Charles's empire on the east side opposite
to France. The Turks had a great man for their sultan,
which means the same as our king; they were useful
XXXV.]
FRANCIS I,
•253
friends to have, but it was thought at that time very hor-
rible that Christians should make friends with Turks, and
many people who would have been friends of Francis were
turned against him by his doing so. Francis was to attack
Charles in Italy, and the Turks on the eastern side of
Germany. Charles would have been able to defend him-
seK against Francis alone, but with the Turks on the other
side he was soon glad to make peace, and Francis gained
a little more land.
After this there was a third war, during which Francis
won his last victory in Italy. It did not bring him much
good, and soon afterwards peace was again made. Francis
was worn out with his active life, though he was little
more than fifty years old. He died two years after his last
peace with Charles, and Henry VIII., King of England,
died in the same year. Francis was admired and loved by
many of his subjects, as he had many of the good qualities
which they cared for the most, because they were like their
own. He was active, brave, generous, cheerful, good-
natured ; but he was not altogether a good king, though
better than many of those who came both before and after
him. He was selfish, never thinking of any one but him-
self, and he was untruthful, so that his word could not be
trusted. He treated his good sister Margaret, towards the
end of his life, with great unkindness.
254 HENRY I L [CH.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Henry 11.(1547-1559).
The two eldest sons of Francis I. had been prisoners in
Spain for three years, as I said in the last chapter. Though
they had been well treated there, on the whole, the life had
not agreed with them ; and the elder and better of the two
became delicate before he went back to France, and died
young before his father. The second brother, Henry, was
the next king. He was a handsome, brave, active young
man, but not fit to be king, because he never would take
the trouble of thinking for himseK. He always had some
favourite to think for him and tell him his ideas, with
which the king was sure to agree. Henry had for a long
time a set of friends of his own, who very much disliked
aU that Francis did in the country. They all watched
anxiously for his death, and as soon as it came, Henry
changed all his father's ministers and put his Mends into
power.
The chief of these friends was a lady called Diana of
Poitiers, who could make both the king and his wife do
whatever she liked, and as Diana thought only about what
pleased herself, and not at all about the good of the country
and the king's subjects, her power was a misfortune for
France. The king also had for friends two brothers — one
1 <
XXXVI.] HENRY II , ' 255
a soldier, one a cardinal, brave, active, and ambitious, and
distant relations of the king, so that they had some hopes,
while the king had no children, that the elder, the Duke
of Guise, might some day come to be king himself. These
men were friends of Diana, and she persuaded Henry to
give them places and power, and make them as important
as possible. All the king's ministers were so eager for
some chance of making themselves rich or grand, that they
were said to seize upon every office or abbey or place that
was left unfilled, as a swallow does upon flies. The king
never had the spirit to resist either the Guises or his
Qonstable Montmorency, who was another of his great
friends ; and no one who did not belong to one of these
two great parties could be attended to. at the court
The English king had died at the same time as Francis
I., and the new king, who was quite a boy, had wished
to be betrothed to the little Queen of Scotland, who was
a child of six years old, in order to bring about peace
between the two countries, which were very often at war
together. But the little girl, Mary Stuart, was a niece of
the Guises, and they settled to carry her off into France,
that she might be betrothed to the eldest son of the French
king, so that whenever France went to war with England,
Scotland might be inclined to take the side of the French.
Mary and her mother were taken to France, and the child
was betrothed to the little Dauphin, and was married to
him when they both grew up. This was the Mary Stuart
who afterwards went back to her own country, quaxrelled
with Elizabeth of England, and at last had her head cut
off in an English prison. It was very unfortunate for her
that she was taken away from her home in this way as a
266 HENRY I L [CH.
. •'■
child, and never learned to know her subjects till it was
too late. She was brought up with the French princes by
their mother, Catherine of Medicis, who was one of the
worst women of whom we ever hear ; but she had no power
while her husband lived, and so people did not yet know
of her badness.
In the reign of Henry II. the question had to be
settled whether he and his subjects would belong to the
reformed religion which Luther had taught, or would stay
as they had been, subjects of the Pope. The Emperor
Charles was at war with the princes of Germany, who had
most of them followed the new ideas, and the princes asked
Henry for help. There were three towns on the borders
of France and Germany, named Metz, Toul, and Verdun,
and called the Three Bishoprics, because they were gov-
erned by bishops instead of counts or princes. Henry and
other French kings had much wished to have them for
their own, because they were so near to other French
towns, especially to Paris, that the French kings always
felt afraid of the Germans coming through them as enemies
into France. Henry saw a good opportunity for making
himself master of these towns by becoming the friend of the
German princes. He made a treaty with them, and col-
lected a great army with which he marched into Germany.
When the army came to Metz, the nearest of the Three
Bishoprics, the magistrates sent out food to the soldiers
and invited the king and princes to come into the town.
The constable asked leave to take in a few soldiers with '
him, and when the magistrates had said that he might
bring a few, he went in with so great a number, that he
was able to make himself master pf the town. The people
XXXVI.] HENRY IL 257
of Metz, when they saw what he was doing, tried to shut
the gates of the town upon him, but it was too late. The
soldiers were inside and could not be driven out, so that
the town had to submit to the king. Toul and Verdun —
the two other bishoprics — did the same, as Henry promised
not to interfere with their rights and customs, and it made
little difference to them whether they belonged to the
emperor or to him. Soon after this the emperor and the
princes made peace, and the king was able to go back to
his own country without having done any great good to
his friends, but having won for himself the three towns,
which were what he reaUy cared about.
Henry, though he had been fighting to help the
Eeformers, was himseK a Eoman Catholic, The Guises,
the Constable, and Diana, were aU friends of the Pope, and
Henry thought as they thought. About this time many of
his subjects began to turn from the old beliefs to the new.
A Frenchman named Calvin wrote a book about what he
believed, which many people thought good and true, and
those people called themselves Calvinists after his name,
and used to meet together and have a service of their own.
Their belief was in some ways different from that of the
Lutherans, but much more like them than like the old
religion, and both Lutherans and Calvinists called them-
selves Protestants. Henry set up a council of men in the
Parliament, whose special business it was to attend to all
questions about heretics, which was the name given by
Eoman Catholics to all Protestants. This council was
called the Burning Council, because it generally ordered
aU the Protestants brought before it to be burned. But
still the number of Protestants, or, as they were called
S
258 HENRY II, [ch.
in France, Huguenots, grew larger and larger. Printing
had lately been invented, and the Bible and little books of
psalms ^ere printed out of France, and then brought into
the country by people who disguised themselves and hid
the books they carried. The psalms were sometimes set
to music, and the poor Huguenots sang them through all
their troubles, in their hiding-places, in prison, and often
even at the stake. Many of them were burned with the
little books in their hands.
The king at one time used to go and look on at these
dreadful sights. He once went to see the burning of sev-
eral heretics together, and among them he found one that
he knew. The man was a tailor who had been employed
in the palace, and the ladies of the court had, to amuse
themselves, asked him what he believed. He had then
told them plainly that he was a Huguenot, and for this he
was to be burned. When he saw the king come to look on
at his death, he fixed his eyes upon him, so that Henry was
startled and moved away. But the man still kept on look-
ing at him, even after the fire was lighted and the flames
rose up, till Henry at last left the place, and for some time
after imagined himself seeing the same sight every night,
so that he resolved never to look on at an execution again.
While Henry was king, his father^s old enemy, Charles
v., ended his reign. By the time he was fifty-six, Charles
was so worn out with his long reign and all the troubles
and difficulties he had gone through, as well as disappointed
and vexed at finding that he could not make the heretics
submit to him, as he had hoped to be able to do, that he
made up his mind to govern no longer. He gave up the
different countries of his empire one by one to his son and
XXXVI.] HENRY II. 269
to his brother. The brother became Emperor, and the son
Philip II., King of Spain and of the Netherlands, Directly
after this a war began between Philip and Henry of
France, and as Philip had married Mary, who was now
Queen of England, the English sent an army to help the
Spaniards. Philip won the great battle of St. Quentin,
and took the town of the same name in the north of
France, but was so long in marching on any farther, or
putting his victory to any use, that the French had time
to get their men together, and when he did go farther on
towards Paris they were ready to resist him.
In this war the man who was afterwards the chief
leader of the Huguenots, and one of the best and bravest
men of the time, defended the town that PhiKp besieged,
and with scarcely any men fought as long as it was
possible, so a. I kelp the SpLsh army from going
farther till his friends were ready to resist it. This man
was called Coligny. It is said of him that whenever there
was a piece of work to be done, specially hard and dull,
and that would bring no glory or fame as a reward, Coligny
was the man to do it Often, when some one else had
planned some attack or surprise for the enemy, and found
some difficulty come in the way and seem likely to spoil
everything, Coligny would set to work to get rid of the
difficulty, and then let the other carry out his plan and
have aU the glory of it. He war said to be harsh and
stem, but every one trusted and honoured him, and his
first thought was always for the good of his friends. He
was taken prisoner by Philip, with the constable Mont-
morency, who had gone to his help, and had not been able
to help him in the town where he was besieged.
Y"
260 HENRY IL [CH.
Henry then put the Duke of Guise at the head of the
army, and trusted to him to drive the Spaniards out of the
country. The duke settled to do what he knew would
please the French better than anything else. He marched
against Calais. This town had belonged to the English
ever since it had been taken by Edward I., two hundred
years before, and it had always been a great vexation to
the French to see a town so near Paris belonging to their
enemies." There was always a body of soldiers there and
a governor to protect the place \ but it was the custom in
winter for the number of soldiers to be made a good deal
smaller than usual, because at this time the marshes round
Calais were so deep and wet that it was supposed no one
could pass through them. The English had also become
careless about guarding the ramparts or walls round the
town, and Queen Mary was so much taken up in trying
to make all her people Boman Catholics that she had not
much time to attend to anything else.
The Duke of Guise had observed the place carefully,
and knew where to pass the marsh, and how to attack it.
The English were taken by surprise, and after an attack
which lasted three days, the French took the castle, and
soon afterwards the town. It was the last bit of land
that had belonged to the English in France, and the
French were so much delighted at seeiug their country free
again from all strangers that they were comforted for hav-
ing been so lately defeated by Philip. The Duke of Guise
was almost worshipped by the people. The English, on the
other hand, were very angry at their loss. Queen Mary
was made so unhappy by it that she said that when she died
the word " Calais " would be found written on her heart.
xxxvL] HENRY IL 261
■ .--. ^j III IIMIIIIIIIII I
There was one other battle between the French and
Spaniards at a place called Gravelines. It was fought by
the sea-side, on the sands at low tide. Just when the
battle was at its height ten English ships came sailing up
with a good breeze, and coming close to the shore, fired at
the French, They could not resist the two enemies at
once, and were beaten. Soon after this Philip and Henry
made peace, and also France and England. The French
lost a great deal of land by this peace, and it was gained
by Philip, which much displeased some of Henry's sol-
diers ; among other thiags he gave up all that had been
his in Italy. He and the Spanish king were both anxious
for peace with each other, in order that they might give
all their time to stopping heresy among their subjects.
In France many even of Henry's ministers and of the
chief people in the country were becoming Huguenots.
The king found that these people were ready to resist his
plan of having people put to death for heresy, as if it were
the worst of crimes. Henry wished to set up in France
the Inquisition — a terrible secret council which the Pope
and the King of Spain had invented. Its work was to find
out heretics, to ask them questions and see what they
really believed, and if they were found to be heretics, to
* punish them for it by death, or in other ways. People were
often tortured by the Inquisition in order to make them
speak, if they refused at first to say all that the Inquisi-
tors wished. It was enough that any one person should
say of another that he was a heretic, for him to be carried
off to the Inquisition. The people were all expected and
commanded to give up any of their friends who might be
heretics ; and they did this so much that no one could
262 HENRY IL [CH.
trust even their near relations. Children were afraid of
their parents; brothers of their sisters; wives of their
husbands. All Eoman Catholics were taught by their
priests that it would be a sin to help a heretic because
he happened to be their friend or relation, and also that
it was better for the person himseK that he should be
punished in this life, than that he should die a heretic,
which, it was thought, would bring him worse punishment
in another life. The king found that most of the chief
people in the country refused to have this terrible Inquisi-
tion brought into France. He did what he could to per-
suade them ; and had some of the men who had resisted
him most boldly thrown into prison.
A few days later he was joining in a tournament
which was being held in honour of the marriages of his
two daughters. It was held close to the walls of the
BastiUe, one of the prisons of Paris where these prisoners
were shut up. It is even supposed that they might have
seen what went on through their windows. The king was
very fond of exercises of all sorts ; and just as the sports
were coming to an end, he asked a Scotch knight to tilt
with him. By an accident the end of the knight's spear
flew upwards into the king's face, lifted up the vizor which
protected it, and went into his eye. The king fell forward
on the neck of his horse, and was carried away by his
squires. The best doctors in Europe came to attend him,
but it was of no use ; he died ten days afterwards. The
Protestants, both in and out of prison, were glad of his
death, though they soon found that they were no better off
under his son's rule than they had been under his.
^^ ^■••-•■i^'P IPT "■«q
xxxvii.l FRANCIS IL 263
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Francis IL (1559-1560).
Henry left four sons, of whom the eldest was between
fifteen and sixteen, and he was crowned king, and is
known as Francis II. Besides being so young, he was in
very bad health, and weak and foolish by nature, so that
he was quite unable to govern for himseK. But there
were plenty of people ready to advise and help him, the
only question was which of them would be able to make
him listen to them. His mother, Catherine of Medicis,
and his wife Mary Stuart, who had been betrothed to him
when he was five years old, and married to him a short
time before he became king, were the advisers to whom he
listened most. Mary, as I have before said, was the niece
of the Duke of Guise and his brother, and did whatever
they wished. Catherine was also their friend, because she
thought that they were stronger than any one else in the
kingdom, and that it would be dangerous to have them for
enemies. They persuaded her and the king to make them
the chief ministers in the country ; and it was settled that
the Duke of Guise should have the management of every-
thing belonging to war; that his brother the cardinal
should be in charge of aU the money and treasure of the
kingdom ; and that the other ofi&ces of government should
264 FRANCIS IL [CH.
be taken away from the enemies of the Guises and given
to men who were their Mends.
Francis IL reigned only for one year. During that
time France had no war with any other country, but there
was a great deal of what was almost civil war in France
itseUl The great question to be settled was how the
Huguenots were to be treated. The king had been
brought up as a Boman Catholic, the Guises and some
other great people in the country were Boman Catholics
also, and most anxious to put a stop to heresy. But the
number of Huguenots or heretics was growing greater
every month. Many of the chief men in France had
taken their side. At this time there were so many im-
portant people about the king, some his friends and some
his enemies, that it is best to mention them all at once to
prevent confusion.
There were three sets of brothers, of whom the most
important were the Guises. The Duke of Guise was the
eldest of this set, the Cardinal of Lorraine the second, and
there were four others ; they were aU Boman Catholics,
Mends of the Pope and of Spain. The king's wife Maiy
was one of the same family. The constable Montmorency
was also a Boman Catholic, and was secretly a Mend of the
King of Spain, though at first he was inclined to help the
Protestants firom a dislike to the great power of the Guises.
On the Protestant side there were three brothers, of whom
Coligny was one ; his younger brother was a soldier, the
eldest a cardinal ; they were all three brave honest men,
and the nephews of the constable. There were two other
Huguenot brothers, the elder of whom was looked on as
the head of all the Huguenots. These were the King of
)
XXXVII.] FRANCIS IL 265
Navarre and Louis, Prince of Cond4 The King of Navarre
was a weak, changeable man, and did his friends as much
harm as good, foi: they could not depend upon him, as
there was always a chance of his being won over by their
enemies and suddenly leaving them when they wanted him
most. His brother Cond^ was brave, ambitious, and war-
like, but poor, without any place in the Government to
make him a person of importance. These two were rivals
of the Guises, who were always afraid lest Catherine of
Medicis should make friends with them, and govern by
their help instead of by that of the Guises.
Catherine was indeed very doubtful which side to take,
and whose advice to listen to. At first the Guises had
everything their own way, and a very bad way it was for
the Huguenots. Laws were made to stop all meetings by
day or night, and saying that every one who went to any
should be put to death. This was to prevent the Huguenots
from holding any services, which, as they had no churches,
were of course only meetings either out of doors, or in the
house of one of their own party. Every day some of them
were thrown into prison or driven out of the country.
Stories were invented about wicked things of all kinds
which the Huguenots were supposed to do when they met
together, and the common people were set against them as
much as possible.
At the comers of the streets in Paris, little images of
saints were set up, and whenever any one passed one of
these without taking off his hat, or stopping to make a
prayer to it, the people cried out that he was a heretic,
and often attacked him or beat him, or carried him off to
prison on the spot I have said before that one of the
266 FRANCIS II. [ch.
differences between Protestants or Huguenots anci Eoman
Catholics was that the Boman Catholics thought it right
to pray to saints and to the Virgin Maiy, and the Protest-
ants thought it wrong and foolish.
The Huguenot minister whom Henry II. had put into
prison at the end of his reign, was tried and put to
death.
The Guises had one great difficulty in governing the
country, there was very little money in the treasury.
They looked for ways of making more, and fouhd some
that were unjust ; they persuaded the king to refuse to pay
back money which had been lent to the kings who had
gone before him, and which he was bound by law to pay.
Francis gave orders that every one who had come to the
court to ask for payment of debts, or for rewards of any
kind, or for favours, should go away within twenty-four
hours, and that if they did not go they should be hanged.
Most of the people who had lent money to the kings were
noblemen ; they were very angry at being treated in this
way, and knowing it was the Guises who had given the
young king bad advice, they all joined together against
them, and resolved to take away their power from them.
In order to be strong enough to do this, they joined with
the Huguenots, who had been still worse treated than
they. The Huguenots had been taught that it was never
right to resist a ruler, however bad or imjust he might be ;
but the nobles told them that the young king was their
real ruler, and that what they wished to do was to set
Francis free from the Guises, who were making him do
whatever they liked, and treated him as a slave.
A leader was wanted; and the King of Navarre,
xxxviL] FRANCIS II. 267
who was the most important man of the Huguenot party,
might have seemed the right chief for them to have ; but
he had been so much frightened bj a letter from the King
of Spain, promising to help the young king and the Guises,
that he did not dare to do anything against them. His
brother Cond4 was bolder, and agreed to be their leader,
but not openly. He was to have nothing to do with the
rising up which they were planning, but when all had
been done, the Guises made prisoners and the young king
in the power of the Huguenots, Cond6 was to take the
place which the Guises now held, to guard the young king,
and advise him as to ruling the country. Cond^, as he was
not expected to take any share beforehand in what went
on, was called the dumb captain, and a gentleman of the
south of France was found to be captain in the meanwhile,
and make necessary preparations. The plan was to take
the town, in which were the king and the Guises, without
fighting, if possible, if not, by force. All would be easy if
the plot could be kept a secret, but among the many people
to whom the secret had been told, was one who was at
heart a Boman Catholic, and who went to the Guises and
told them all he knew.
They at once took the king to a stronger town, which
had a castle to defend it, and they arranged that soldiers
should be brought into the country, and should be ke'pt
near to the town, ready to gather together at once as soon
as they were sent for.
When the Huguenots at last made their attack, they
found every one ready to meet them. Many of them were
seized separately and carried off as prisoners, others were
attacked by the king's soldiers ; their leader fell in the
268 FRANCIS IL [CH.
fight Those who were left alive joined in one body and
attacked the town openly, but they were driven back and
could do nothing more than fly from their lines, followSd
by their cruel enemies. The Prince of Cond^, when he
saw they had not succeeded, saved his life by declaring
that he had had nothing to do with them, and offering to
fight any one who did not believe him. The Guises cer-
tainly did not believe him, but as they were afraid to do
him any harm, they did not say so, and he went away
unhurt, while every one who had had a share in the plot
was hunted down by the soldiers, thrown into prison, and
put to death without any trial.
It was a new thing in France to see men put to death
without anything being declared in public as to their
crime, their punishment, or even their names. Some were
hanged, some drowned, some beheaded ; and it explains
the hatred many people had for the Guises, that they and
the great people of the court, both men and women, used
to look on at the executions as if they were a show.
They always happened outside the palace windows, and
the young king and his little brothers were brought to
look on as well, and at last grew so well accustomed to
the sight, that they laughed at it and thought it an amuse-
ment The people had been told that the Huguenots
had wished to take the king prisoner and to do harm to
the Eoman Catholics, while the Huguenots themselves
declared they had only wished to get rid of the Guises.
This rising up, which ended so badly, is called the Con-
spiracy of Amboise.
After this the Guises had as much power as ever,
but Catherine, the king's mother, was now afraid of their
XXXVII.] PRANCIS IL 269
becoming so strong that she would be obliged to do all
they wished, and she began to turn towards the Hugue-
nots. She had for chancellor a wise and prudent man
named TH&pital, who wished to make some plan by which
the Huguenots and Catholics might both live peaceably in
France without hurting one another; and he persuaded
the queen-mother, as she was called, not to take the side
of either, but to stay between the two, and try to prevent
cruelty on either side. The Huguenots had long been
asking that the States-General might meet to settle the
question of religion. The Guises had at first disliked this
idea, but at last they agreed to it, hoping that the States-
General would decide as they wished, and the deputies
were commanded to meet at Orleans in a few months'
time.
The Guises had a plan to make use of this meeting to
take prisoners their two enemies, the King of Navarre and
his brother Louis of Cond^. They were invited to come
to the States-Gteneral, and as they had always specially
asked that the council should be held, they did not like to
refuse, though many people warned them that the Guises
were not to be trusted, and that if they went to court
some harm would probably happen to them. However,
they went on boldly, and refused to take with them a body
of horsemen who had come together on purpose to defend
them. As soon as they arrived at Orleans, and while they
were talking to the king in his private room, some captains
of the guards came in and carried away Cond^ to prison.
The King of Navarre was also treated as a prisoner, for he
was forbidden to go out of his own house, and was not
allowed to see any one without leave.
270 FRANCIS 11. [ch.
The Guises wished to do worse than this. They had
arranged that the young Francis should have a meeting
with the King of Navarre, and while they were talking
give a sigiial to some murderers who would be waiting
close at hand, and would put him to death at once ; but
when the moment came Francis could not make up his
mind to give the signal, and the King of Navarre escaped
for the time. Both brothers would most likely have been
put to death, but that Francis II. was suddenly taken ill.
He died after a few days' illness, and the great power of
the Guises came to an end at his death, as their niece
Mary would now no longer be Queen of France.
No one but the Guises had wished for the death of
Cond^ and his brother, and they were at once both set
free. Francis's death was a happy thing for the country,
for the Guises had meant to make use of the States-
General for getting rid of aU their enemies. They had
meant to ask every deputy to take an oath that they be-
lieved the Catholic faith, and those who would not do so
were to lose aU their titles and wealth, and to be burned
as heretics. They would then have done the same all over
France, taking the oath to every town and putting to death
aU who would not agree to take it. The consequence
would probably have been a civil war, and indeed this was
what came at last? but the death of Francis II. put it off
for a while.
XXXVIII.] CHARLES IX, 271
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Charles IX. (1560-1674).
Fraiicis II. was succeeded by his next brother, Charles
IX. He was a boy of ten years old at Francis's death, and
there was some question as to who should be regent for
him till he was old enough to govern for himself. It had
been settled by the French laws that the king was of age,
that is, old enough to govern, when he was fourteen. Other
people were not considered of age till they were much
older — a gentleman's son not till he was twenty-one, and
a poor man at twenty-five. There were four years still to
come before Charles would be of age, and his mother,
Catherine of Medicis, was declared regent. She was still
inclined to be the friend of the Guises. She was in the
same difficulties as before as to which side to take between
the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots. She was afraid
of either party becoming so strong that it would be able to
take away the power fix)m her, and so, for the time, she
changed about, always turning against any one who seemed
growing specially powerful in the country.
The King of Navarre and his brother Cond^ were set
free after Francis's death, and the States-General of Orleans
were opened directly afterwards. Many complaints were
made of different matters that were going wrong in the
272 CHARLES IX. [ch.
country, and when the council was over, an edict or order
of the Government was sent out, explaining what was to
be done in order to set right all that was wrong or in con-
fusion. But some powerful people disliked the edict, and
after aU, it was never carried out. Many meetings were
held at this time to consider the difficult question of the
Huguenots ; many laws were made about them ; one that
they might never have public services or preach, and
another afterwards that they might preach in the open
country, but not in towns. Once a few of the most dis-
tinguished Huguenot teachers met together with some
of the chief Roman Catholic clergy and discussed their
different beliefs. The little king came to hear this, though
some people said he ought not to be allowed to listen to
Huguenots. There were long speeches and explanations
made on both sides, but of course neither party succeeded
in persuading the other. There were many disturbances
and quarrels in Paris, usually begun by the Eoman
Catholics, but carried on very cruelly on both sides. At
last came one quarrel worse than usual, which brought on
the beginning of the first of the civil wars about religion,
which lasted so long in France.
The Duke of Guise, who had been into Germany, was
on his way home, and was passing through a little town
named Vassy, when he heard bells ringing, and, asking
what it meant, was told that the Huguenots were holding
a service. He had before this been angry with the people
of Vassy, and he came this way with an army on purpose
to be revenged on them.
Their service was being carried on in a bam, to which
Guise, biting his beard as he always did when angry, led
XXXVIII.] CHARLES IX. 273
his soldiers, who were all delighted at the idea of an attack
on the Huguenots, and made them fire in at the windows.
The Huguenots tried to shut the door, but could not;
Guise's soldiers rushed in, their swords drawn, crying out.
" Kill, Trill/' The Huguenots tried to defend themselves
with stones, but their enemies were too strong for them.
Some of them climbed on to the roof, and, if they were not
seen and shot down by the soldiers, escaped ; others were
driven out of the church, and forced to pass between two
lines of soldiers, who drove them on with cuts from their
swords. Sixty people altogether were killed, and two
hundred severely wounded. The Duchess of Guise, who
was outside the town, and heard the cries of the Hugue-
nots, sent a message asking her husband to spare at least
the women, after which none of them were killed, but the
attack lasted for an hour.
The Duke of Guise made himself hated all through
France by this horrible cruelty. He always said, indeed,
that he had tried to stop his soldiers, and that he had
never intended that any Huguenots should be put to death.
This he repeated on his death-bed, and it is possible that
it may be true. But at any rate we do not hear of his pun-
ishing any of his soldiers, or doing anything afterwards
to help the people of Vassy ; and it seems most likely that
he planned this attack beforehand, and was glad of the
opportxmity of showing his friends that he was stiU the
worst enemy of the Protestants, and strong enough to do
them serious harm.
That year the war began : both parties found friends
abroad to help them. The Spanish king sent men to the
Boman Catholics, Queen Elizabeth of England to the
T
274 CHARLES IX. [ch.
Protestants. The Huguenots were successful to begin with,
and took more than two hundred towns in Normandy and
the other provinces in the north of France. The first of
these towns, and one of the most important, was Orleans,
the same from which Jeanne D'Arc drove the English in the
reign of Charles VII. The brother of the Prince of Cond6
had taken one of the gates, and sent to Cond^ to come
quickly and make himself master of the town. The prince,
who was about eighteen miles away, at once set off, gallop-
ping at fuU speed with two thousand horsemen behind
him : they went so fast that knapsacks, horses, and riders
rolled on the ground, but the others only shouted with
laughter, and rode on without staying to pick them up.
The people who saw this body of soldiers sweeping by like
a whirlwind, and behaving in this strange way, were much
surprised, and asked if they were going to a battle of
fools.
But in spite o£ this cheerful beginning the Huguenots
did not find the war answer as well for them as they had
hoped. The people of the country did not reaUy agree
with them, and when the Boman Catholics came to take
back the towns that had been won by the Huguenots,
they found no difficulty. The war was carried on most
cruelly by the Eoman Catholics. The Huguenots, when-
ever they made themselves masters of a town, ruined the
churches, broke down the images, burned the pictures,
destroyed bridges, statues, and other ornaments of the
town; but the Roman Catholics did worse, for they
turned > all their anger against men and women. The
townspeople were put to death in the street, the peasants
were chased fiercely through the country; some were
X
\i
xxxviiL] CHARLES IX. 275
tried before a court of justice and hanged, or broken on
the wheel, one of the most cruel of punishments.
The leaders of the Huguenots were the Prince of Cond4
and Coligny, who was now made Admiral of France ; those
of the Eoman Catholics, the Constable Montmorency, the
Duke of Guise, and the man whom Guise had once wished
to put to death, Antony, King of Navarre, the brother of
Cond^, who had now left the Huguenots, and become a
Eomaii Catholic and a friend of Guise.
The Huguenot Coligny had been very unwilling to
begin the war, but was persuaded to it by his wife, a
Huguenot herself, who could not bear to see how the
Eoman Catholics ill-treated her friends, not even keeping
the promises that had been made about Protestant services
and sermons. Towards the end of the year in which the
war began, the King of Navarre, while fighting outside a
town named Eouen, was so severely wounded that he died
a few days afterwards. His wife, Jeanne, was a Hugue-
not, and had brought up her only son, who now became
King of Navarre, in the same faith. He was at this time
a boy of nine years old, and was afterwards to become one
of the greatest kings of France. Shortly after this there
was a great battle, the first in this war. The Roman
Catholics were the stronger in foot-soldiers, the Huguenots
in horse soldiers, and the battle was long and for some time
equal ; but it was won at last by the Eoman Catholics.
The general on each side was taken prisoner — ^the Prince
of Cond6 by the Eoman Catholics, the Constable Montmor-
ency by the Huguenots. This was the battle of Dreux.
Before the end of the year the Duke of Guise was
murdered by a Huguenot enemy, as he was making ready
276 CHARLES IX, ' [CH.
tx) attack Orleans. It was towards evening when the
murderer followed him and two gentlemen who were
riding with him, and standing close to him fired three
pistol shots at the Duke of Guise and rode away. Guise
fell forward on his horse's neck, and his companions
carried him to a castle near at hand; they tried every
means to cure him, but in vain, and he died, leaving a son
to succeed him, who afterwards became ahnost as famous
as his father. Francis of Guise had a splendid burial in
Paris, while the murderer, who was caught and tried, was
put to death in the most cruel manner.
The chief men on both sides were now either killed or
in prison. The Huguenot prisoners were won over by
Catherine, and agreed to make a treaty with her. Peace
was signed, and it was settled that the Protestants might
hold services in the house of any baron or nobleman, but
pubUc services only in certain towns in France; and as
these towns were a good way apart, some of the peasants
would have had to travel for fifty or sixty miles from their
homes to reach one of them, and travelling in those times,
when the war had only just stopped, was neither safe nor
easy. Coligny told Cond^ that in agreeing to this peace
he had ruined more Protestant churches than the war
would have destroyed in ten years.
The young Charles was by this time fourteen, and was
then declared to be grown up, and able to govern for
imself.
y Catherine was no longer regent, but she was jJways her
son's chief adviser, and was usually able to persuade him to
do as she wished. Charles and his mother took a journey
round France, in the course of which they paid a visit to
I
I
XXXVIII.] CHARLES IX, 211
one of Chaxles's sisters, the young Queen of Spain, and
made friends with the Duke of Alva, a terrible Spanish
general, who was going into the Netherlands to punish the
people for being Protestants, and for trying to set them-
selves free from the Spanish king.
He probably gave Charles advice which was very cruel
towards the Huguenots.
A second war began three^ years afterwards, and lasted
for six months. Another p^ace was made, and a third war
broke out. It was impossible that there should be peace
between two sets of people so nearly equally strong, and
hating each other so much. Two great battles were
fought in this third war; in one of them the Prince of
Cond4 was killed. He had been hurt the day before by
a faU from his horse, and in the course of the battle had
his leg broken by a horse's kick, but he would not leave
the field. He cried out to his friends, "This is the
moment we have wished for. Eemember how Louis of
Cond^ entered into battle for Christ and his country," and
then charged down upon his enemies with three hundred
horsemen behind him. At first the enemy gave way
before him, but his body of followers was so smaU that
the Eoman Catholics soon closed round them, and Condi's
horse was killed and feU with the prince underneath it.
Cond^ at last gave himself up to a Eoman Catholic gentle-
man^ but no sooner had he done so than another French
captain came up, saw who he was, and shot him dead.
This was the battle of Jamac. The Eoman Catholics
hoped that the Huguenots would lose aU their spirit now
Cond6 was dead, but they were disappointed. The Queen
of Navarre, widow of Antony, arrived at the headquarters
278 CHARLES IX. [CH.
of the Huguenots, bringing two boys, both named Henry,
one the son of Cond^, the other her own son, the young
King of Navarre. She made a speech to the soldiers, and
called on them to take her son for their chiet They
agreed with loud shouts of joy, and the young Henry, who
was then about fifteen years old, took an oath never to
desert the cause of the Huguenots.
One more battle was f6ught, in which the Protestants
were again defeated and lost a great number of men.
It was at a place called Moncontour. Coligny was
wounded, but, carried in a litter, was able to lead the
retreat and to make plans for the future. One of his
chief enemies, looking on at the slow march which none
of the Boman Catholics dared to disturb, said, in despair
at .the courage of the Huguenots, " We must make peace."
Catherine thought the same.
It was the Protestants who were not willing to make
peace, but the arrangements that at last were made were
better for the Huguenots than those of either of the two
other peaces there had already been in this war. The
Protestants were allowed to hold services, they were to
have employment and offices like the Eoman Catholics,
and they had four strong towns given up to them as an
assurance that the king would keep his word. This was
the end of the first division of the war.
The king, Charles IX., was now about twenty years
old. He was a weak, delicate young man, and though he
had strong, violent feelings, and was jJways ready to
insist upon having his own way, his mother, Catherine of
Medicis, was usually able to persuade him to do what she
wished, and make him think that what she proposed was
xxxviil] CHARLES IX. 279
really his own idea. She loved his next brother Henry^ a
boy of sixteen, much better than Charles, and had put hiTn
at the head of the army against the Soman Catholics,
while she never would allow the king to join in the war
at all, so that Henry gained all the glory of the two last
victories which the Soman Catholics had won. Charles
was angry with his mother and brother, and began for the
first time to think of making friends with his chief
Huguenot subjects.
The admiral, Coligny, was invited to court, and talked
to the young king of the great deeds that might be
done in the Netherlands by helping the people there who
were rising up against PhiHp II., King of Spain. PhiKp
was the enemy of all Protestants, and he was also the
enemy of France ; and Coligny wished that Charles should
send him with an army to fight on the side of the Nether-
landers. The king and his Huguenot lords would then be
friends, and all the Huguenots of France, pleased at seeing
their king help men who believed much the same as they
did, would become Charles's loyal subjects. Charles him-
self was pleased at the idea, for he had always wished to
have some opportunity of making himself famous ^ias a
soldier. .
Catherine was much vexed when she found that
Coligny was becoming so great a friend of the king's.
She was afraid that he would try to set her son against
her, and she determined that she must in some way get
rid of the admiral She consulted with the young Duke of
Guise and his relations, and with her own favourite son,
Henry, Duke of Anjou. A man was hired, who shot at the
admiral from a window as he was walking from the Louvre
280 CHARLES IX, [CH.
to his own house, reading a paper. The ball shot ofif one
of the fingers of his right hand, and went into his left arm.
Ooligny had presence of mind enough to point with his
wounded hand to the window firom which the shot had
come, and while some of his friends helped hirn to his
house, and others went to tell the king what had happened,
the rest rushed to the house where the murderer had been
hidden, beat open the door, and searched for him every-
where, but in vain. They found the gun still smoking,
but no other sign of him. He had had a horse waiting at
the door, upon which he had made his escape, and he could
never be caught
The king was much distressed when he heard of this.
He went to see the admiral as he lay in bed, swore to
punish the enemies who had plotted against him, and was
very angry with the Guises, whom he rightly suspected
of having had something to do with the matter. But
Catherine had in her mind a still more wicked plan than
that of putting the admiral to death ; and the Guises and
her son Henry agreed to it. It was nothing less than what
had been proposed but not carried out once before — on a
particular night to put to death all the Huguenots in Paris
and in the other chief towns of France.
She thought that in this way she should get rid at
least of some of her enemies, and that if the Protestants
resisted, and some of the Soman Catholic lords, even the
Guises, were killed in the struggle, she should get rid of
still more. The king was told that the Huguenots had
made a plot to rise up against the Government, and that it
was necessary to put the admiral at least to death to pre-
vent them from doing so. His mother told him this again
XXXVIII.] CHARLES IX, 281
— — ' — II
and again, till the weak young man, who might have
known how deceitful and treacherous she was, believed
her, fell into a state of terror, and was anxious to have the
deed done at once.
That afternoon he had been with the admiral, talking
to him as a son might to a father, while Catherine stood
in the room watching and longing to stop their conversa-
tion. At last Coligny made the king stoop down to him,
and said some words in a low tone that Catherine could
not hear. Then she had been able to bear it no longer, and
had called away her son, saying the admiral was too ill to
be allowed to talk any more. After so much friendliness
between them, Charles was naturally much shocked at the
idea of this good man being murdered in his bed, and for
some time refused his mother and brother leave to touch
him. But one evening, when they had been talking to him
for some time in the same way, he suddenly changed his
mind, crying out in a sort of wild passion that since they
thought it good, the admiral should die ; but that every
Huguenot in France should die too, lest one should be left
to reproach him afterwards. Sunday the 24th of August,
St. Bartholomew's Day, was the one fixed upon ; a bell was
to ring at midnight, and then the massacre or killing was
to begin.
The king spent the day working at a blacksmith's
forge, which he had set up to amuse himself. Catherine,
Henry of Anjou, and the Guises, made everything ready
for their horrible plan. The night came ; the king drew
back at the thought of what was to happen, and wished to
stop everything, but the queen urged him on.
She was so much afraid of his changing his mind again,
f
I
282 CHARLES IX. [CH.
that she made Guise set out from the palace two hours
earlier than had been arranged. When the clock struck
ten the horrible work began all over Paris. The Boman
Catholics rushed in upon the helpless Protestants, many
of whom were asleep in their beds, aud kiUed them by
stabbing, shooting, or beating out their brains. Men,
women, and children were dragged through the streets and
thrown into the river. Houses were burned, bells rang to
call together more and more enemies agaiast the unfortu-
nate Protestants. Even children were so much excited by
the dreadful sights to be seen in the streets, that they went
to hunt for Protestant babies, and did their be^t to put
them to death.
The murderers went to Coligny's house, where Guise
stayed in the courtyard and sent in one of his servants,
who found the admiral asleep. Coligny woke, asked what
was wanted, and got out of his bed as calmly as usual. For
a moment the murderer was afraid and hung back; but a
friend came up, and together they attacked the admiral,
killed him, and threw his body out of the window to the
Duke of Guise, who was waiting below.
Some Huguenots had escaped by getting on horseback
before the murderers reached their part of the town, and
fleeing from the city ; none of those who stayed were left
aKve. It is said that when day came the king hunself stood
at the window of his palace, firing a long gui at the fleeing
Huguenots, and shouting, " Kill, kill." This unfortunate
young man seems to have been in a state almost like mad-
ness at this time, and is not so much to blame for what had
happened as his mother, his brother, and the Guises, though
it is sad to think that they never could have done as they
XXXVIII.] CHARLES NC, 283
did if he had gone on refusing his leave, or had given
warning to the admiral. About two thousand people were
killed in one day and night. Orders had been sent to the
governors of the other chief towns of France to put to death
all the Huguenots, as had been done in Paris. A few
governors bravely refused, saying they were soldiers, not
murderers ; many others obeyed.
But after all Catherine was disappointed ; the Hugue-
nots, though so many had died, were not crushed yet ; there
was still another war, and by the peace at the end of it,
the Huguenots gained more freedom than they had ever
had before in France. Charles IX. died two years after
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in deep distress at the
thoughts of that dreadful night and day, which were always
in his mind. His last words were that he was glad he left
no male child to be king after him.
r
i
284 HENRY IIL [CH.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Henry HI. (1574-1589).
When Charles waa dead, his next brother Henry, who had
been Duke of Anjou, became king. He was Catherine's
favourite son, and she had managed only a few months
before to have him chosen King of Poland. Messengers
were now sent to teU him of his brother's death, and call
him back to France. Catherine hoped it might be arranged
that her fourth and youngest son, who was now just grow-
ing up, should be King of Poland in Henry's place. It had
been foretold to her when she was young, that all her sons
should be kings, and as this had now come true with three
of them, she was anxious to see it fulfilled for the last.
However, far from wishing for any other king, the Poles
refused to let Henry go. They were in danger from their
enemies the Turks, and wanted their king to stay and pro-
tect them. But Henry liked France better thian Poland,
and soon managed to leave the Polish capital by night,
taking with him some precious jewels belonging to the
crown, and to make his way into Austria. The Poles, when
they found that he was gone, sent messengers to try and
stop him, but in vain ; they had to give it up at last, and
choose another king. He was probably a better man than
Henry ; he could hardly have been a worse.
XXXIX.] HENRY IIL 285
Henry went on into Italy, and there spent his time in
• amusing himself, showing that it was no wish to begin his
duties as king that had made him hurry away from the
Poles. He did not arrive in France for three months, and
meanwhile his mother governed in his name.
The question about religion in France was as far as
ever from being settled. War followed war, and each time
that peace was made the Huguenots had rather more pro-
mised to them than before; but the promises were usually
not kept, or kept only in the parts of France where the
Huguenots were the stronger. The natural leaders on the
Huguenots' side were the two young princes whom Jane
of Navarre had presented to the people after her husband
died — ^her own son, Henry of Navarre, and his cousin,
Henry of Cond^.
They were no^ yoimg men; Henry of Navarre, the
elder of the two, was twenty-one, almost as old as the new
King of France. He had at first agreed to live at the court
with his wife, who was the king's sister, amusing himself,
and seeming to be good friends with Charles while he lived,
and afterwards with Henry. But he felt more and more
clearly tihiat this was not the right place for him. He re-
membered his mother's teaching and the death of the
Admiral Coligny, his friend, and at last he resolved to leave
the court for ever. He made ready secretly, so that the
king might not find out what he had planned, and stop
him in any way. He succeeded in escaping one night,
and riding to a place many miles away, he gathered his
friends round him, and put himself at the head of the
Huguenots.
There were some people in France who did not care
286 HENRY III. [CH.
much about the difiference between Protestants and Boman
Catholics, who, though they w,ere Eoman Catholics them-
selves, were chiefly anxious that France should be at
peace, and that the Pope should lose all his unlawful
power in the country. This body of people joined them-
selves with the Huguenots, who thus became much stronger
than they had been befora At the head of the Boman
Catholic party was the king, who hated the Huguenots,
and who was always, after he had arrived in France,
doing different strange things to show his subjects how
good a Boman Catholic he was. One of his strange habits
was to walk through the streets with a scourge, singing
hymns and beating himself till his shoulders bled. This
was done by many Boman Catholics of the time as a
penance or punishment which they gave themselves for
their sins ; and it was thought to be a very good deed and
pleasing to God. The people were therefore pleased to see
the king doing it.
At other times he amused himseK with balls and
entertainments, or childish games ; he spent a great deal
of time in playing with some little dogs of a particular
kind of which he was very fond. The other leader of the
Boman Catholics was Henry of Guise, the son of the Duke
of Guise, who had been so powerful in the reigns of
Charles IX. and Francis II. Henry of Guise was now just
grown up, and was as clever and fond of power as his
father had been. He despised the king, and had great
hopes of being able to make himseK the most powerful
man in the country, and perhaps, if Henry died without
sons, succeeding him on the throne. He and his Boman
CathoHc friends arranged what they called a League, and
XXXIX.] HENRY IIL 287
tried to persuade all the Boman Catholics in the country
to belong to it. They were all to join themselves together
in a league or body of friends, and all to make certain
promises; one chief promise was to defend the Koman
Catholic faith ; another, to obey the person who would be
chosen by the League to be their head ; another, to help
each other against any one who might attack or resist
them, whoever it might be. The king was the person
secretly meant by this, though his name was not mentioned,
but every one who belonged to the League knew that if
ever there was a war between the king and the Guises,
they would be expected to help the Guises. Many people
took an oath to join the League and be faithful to it for
ever. As soon as it was made, Guise, at the head of it,
went to war with the Protestants.
Both sides had asked King Henry to call together the
States-General, and see if they could make any arrange-
ment for settling the religious dispute. He agreed, being
in want of money, and hoping to persuade the deputies to
give him some, and the States met together at Blois.
The Huguenots would not be present, nor send any
deputies, and the Eoman Catholics who came were not
very friendly to the king. He had hoped that they would
propose to him some severe means of keeping the Hugue-
nots quiet ; but there was among the deputies one wise
and good man, who, though a Eoman Catholic himself,
persuaded many of the others that it was better there
should be two ways of thinking about religion in the
country than that the civil wars which had lasted so long
should go on. All the deputies agreed in refusing money
to the king, who put an end to the sitting of the States in
288 HENRY III. [CH.
great disappointment, and everything went on as it had
done before. The leaders of the League were also disap-
pointed at finding that th^y had not more friends, for they
had hoped that all the deputies would join with them in
wishing to persecute the Huguenots.
One of the troubles of Henry III. was that his brother,
who was now called Duke of Anjou, as he had been him-
self, was his enemy, and might at any time join the
Huguenots against him. The duke had always been a
friend to the Huguenot leaders, and he had had hopes at
one time of marrying Elizabeth, Queen of England; at
another time he had thought of being King of the Nether-
lands.
He marched into the Netherlands, pretending he was
going to help the people there in their struggle against
Philip II., but he really only tried to make himself master
of a few towns and keep them for his own, leaving the
rest of the country to help itself as best it might. He did
not manage to take the towns, and went back again into
France, where he soon after died, to the relief of his
brother.
Henry had now no near relation left to be king after
him, no brother and no son. The two people for whom he
cared most in the world were two favourites, to whom he
gave all kinds of posts and honours, and for whom he col-
lected together mpney by taxing his people almost more
than they could bear. They had both been made dukes,
and the king arranged that they should marry two of the
sisters of the queen, in order that they might be grander
than any of the other lords. But the person who would
now be king after Henry III. was his enemy, the Hugu6-
XXXIX.] HENRY IIL 289
not, Henry of Navarre, who was showing himself to be a
wiser and a greater man than he had at first seemed likely
to be.
He had learned much from his troubles, and had
become thoughtful and prudent, as well as brave and
active. After the massacre of St. Bartholomew, when he
was living at the French court, and had married the king's
sister, he had been persuaded to become a Boman Catholic,
and had been so till he had gone to put himself at the
head of the Huguenot army. He had then declared him-
self a Huguenot, but he had always treated the Boman
Catholics with great kindness, and many people thought
that he did not really much prefer either religion to the
other. The king wrote to him to ask whether, now that
he seemed likely soon to become king of France, he
would not become a Boman Catholic. He entirely refused.
The Boman Catholics were much distressed at the idea of
having a Huguenot king when Heniy should die. Though
he was only twenty-three, he was so weak and delicate
that his subjects always thought and spoke of HiTn as
likely to die at any time. No such thing had ever been
known as a Protestant King of France, and people said
that such a thing coidd not lawfully be. They all became
eager again to join the League, which had been put an
end to by one of the treaties between Henry and his sub-
jects. The oath was again sent all over the countiy, and
those who swore it again became bound to help the Duke
of Guise and his friends against any one in France who
should resist them. ^
The King of Spain, Philip IL, made a treaty with the
Duke of Guise, and promised to send him help ; but he was
290 HENRY III. [crt.
really more anxious that there should be war in France
than that either party should succeed in conquering the
other. He wanted the French to be busy fighting, so as
not to attend to him, while he went to attack the English
with his Invincible Armada, which he did just at this
time. There is no need for me to say how he succeeded.
Henry III. was frightened when he saw Guise so
strong, and made a treaty with him, promising to join him
against the Huguenots. When Henry of Navarre heard
of this, he sat up aU one night, thinking of the danger in
which the Huguenots were, and trjring to invent some
means of safety or help for them. In the morning he
found that half his moustache had turned white from
trouble and thought.
After this began a war called the War of the Three
Henries. These were King Henry III., Heniy of Navarre,
and Heniy, Duke of Guise. The King of Navarre and the
Duke of Guise were real enemies. King Henry was on the
side of neither. He was afraid of Guise, and he hated the
Huguenots. He called himseK the friend of the League,
but always drew back from giving it any real help. He
had, however, made an edict, that is an order or command,
that the Huguenots should be forbidden to hold services
in France, that all their ministers and all Huguenots who
refused to become JKoman Catholics, should leave the
country within six months. Hundreds of poor people left
their homes and fled out of France, men, women, and
children, taking with them what goods they could carry.
Many of the king's ministers warned him in vain of the
folly and wickedness of thus driving away his subjects.
Henry of Navarre had asked for help from the Pro-
XXXIX.] HENRY IIL 291
testants of Grennany, and a body of soldiers were on their
way to him at this time, but Guise and his army were
between the Huguenots and their friends, and they found
it impossible to join. Henry of Navarre met the royal
army, commanded by one of the king's two favourites, a
brave rash young man. A battle was fought, in which
Henry's grave old Huguenots, who began the fight by
kneeling down and saying a prayer, and sang a hymn as
they marched against their enemies, soon had the better of
the young duke's brave but thoughtless soldiers, who had
most, of them never been in battle before. The Duke was
killed, and this was the first victory of the King of Navarre.
It made the Protestants hopeful for the time, but no good
came to them from it
Soon after, the Duke of Guise marched against the
army of German Protestants, and fought a great battle
against them, in which they were completely beaten and
so much discouraged that those of them who were left
alive went away home at once. The people of the country
rose up against them as they passed, and put to death any
who strayed away from the main body. The French Pro-
testants were thus left with no hope except in the courage
of their leader, and in the dislike which they knew the
king had for the Duke of Guise. Guise's friends admired
him more than ever after his victory over the Germans,
and it was always in his mipd that perhaps some day he
might manage to make himseK king instead of Henry III.,
whom everybody despised. Even if he were not really
king, he had hopes of being able to take for himself all the
real power in the country, and while he was called con-
stable or admiral, or was supposed merely to hold some
292 HENRY I IL [CH.
other great ofl&ce, to be able to make King Henry do what-
ever he wished. He had made a treaty with the King of
Spain, who promised help, but did not give him much,
being very busy about his own affairs.
Guise resolved to go to Paris and see how the people
would receive him. He told his friends of his plan, but
it was not known by the king or the queen's mother
Catherine, who was still alive, or by the common people in
Paris. He arrived with very few followers, and at j&rst
rode through the street with his face hidden in his cloak,
so that no one knew him, but at last one of his firiends
pulled off his hat as if in joke, and told him it was time
to show himself. He was then known at once, and all the
people came rushing into the streets to look at him. They
treated him as a hero, a conqueror, almost as a saint ; they
pressed round to touch him, they tried to kiss his cloak ;
ladies threw down flowers upon him fipom high windows,
and cries of " Long live Guise !" rolled fipom street to street.
The duke went to the house of old Queen Catherine, and
she took him to see the king. Henry was not at all de-
lighted at the way in which Guise had been received, and
had serious thoughts of having him murdered when he
came to the palace ; but was persuaded by his ministers
not to do what would have been both so wrong and so
foolish.
The next day the king brought some troops into Paris,
at which all the citizens rose up in defence of Guise, and
built what they called barricades across the streets. These
were made by stretching chains across a street and piling
up behind them barrels, sand, paving-stones, and whatever
would make a firm wall. Behiud each barricade stood
XXXIX.] HENRY II L * 293
men ready with muskets, others at the windows of the
houses were also armed, ready to fire into the streets.
Women were also at the windows armed like the men.
This day was called the Day of the Barricades. After all,
the town was not attacked, the king went away from
Paris, and left the Duke of Guise there in triumph. It is
said that when the king left Paris, he swore never to come
back there but by a breach, that is, through a hole in the
wall of a town made in battle.
The king was so weak and uncertain that there did not
seem much chance of his ever coming back to his capital.
Though he now looked upon the Duke of Guise as his
worst enemy, he would not join with the King of Navarre
against him ; in fact, he did all that Guise wished, being
afraid to refuse him anything. The States-General were
called together at Blois, the town were the king was
staying. No deputies dared to go there who were not
members of the League and friends of (jruise, and they
hoped to have everything their own way, and make the
king agree to whatever they hked. They made him agree
to so much, that at last he could bear it no longer, and not
having courage or strength to resist the Duke of Guise
openly, he resolved to murder him, and so free himself
from the man he now hated and feared more than any
one else.
Some of his friends, whose help he first asked, refused
to commit the murder for him, saying they were not exe-
cutioners, but others were found at last, who were willing
to undertake the business.
The duke had many warnings sent him by his friends,
but he took no notice of them. The day before Christmas
294 HENRY II L [ch. *
Day he went as usual to the king's castle, where a council
was to be held^ A message came asking the duke to go
into a private room to speak to the king. As soon as he
was in the room, the murderers feU upon him, stabbed
him, and in spite of his struggles succeeded in killing him
before his brother and some other friends, who from
their council chamber heard sounds of what was going
on, could come to his help. The brother was also thrown
into prison and afterwards put to death.
King Henry came to look at the body of his dead
enemy, and was full of pride and pleasure at his success.
He went to tell the news to his mother Catherine, who was
ill in bed, and was much surprised to hear of the death of
the man who had been almost the most important person
in Prance. She warned Henry to take care that now he
had killed the King of Paris, as Guise was called, he did
not himself become the king of nothing. Catherine died
soon after this, cared for by no one, not even her son, for
whom she had done so much, though she had turned even
against him at the end of her life.
When Guise was dead, Henry III. did the only thing
that could now be of use to him, and made peace with the
King of Navarre. Together they were too strong for the
party of the League, who now had for their leader a brother
of the Duke of Guise. The two kings marched towards
Paris, where they believed most of the townspeople would
be ready to take their side. Some of the towns of France
gave themselves up to the king, others to the Duke
of Guise.
But the enemies of the king used the same means
against him that he had used against others. Many of the
XXXIX.] HENRY III. 296
------ ^--11 T
French monks, especially a particular order, called the
Jesuits, who had lately become of great importance in
France, taught that it might at times be right to do wrong
things, that good might come of it ; in particular, that it
might be a duty to kill bad people. A friar, who had heard
this teaching, and who was known to his friends as haK
mad, had made up his mind to kill the king. He asked
advice from a priest, who said the idea was a good one, and
encouraged him in it. He walked to the camp of the king,
which was outside Paris, at a village named St. Cloud, and
was allowed to go into his presence with a letter which he
pretended he wished to deliver. While the king was read-
ing it the friar went close up to him, saying that he wished
to speak to him alone, and suddenly stabbed him with a
long knife which he had brought in hidden in his coat
sleeve. The king cried out, " Ah ! bad monk, he has
killed me ; " drew the knife from his own body, and struck
the murderer in the face. The courtiers rushed upon him
and Idlled him. It was thought at first that the king's
wound was not dangerous; but soon it became worse and
worse. Henry III. died that evening, eight months after
the murder of the Duke of Guise. Of all the bad kings of
France he may be said to have been the worst ; he was
both wicked and weak, and his reign came at a time when
his wickedness and weakness were able to do more mis-
chief in the country than might have come &om them at
a less disturbed time.
296 HENRY IV. [CH.
CHAPTEK XL.
Henbt IV. (1589-1610).
When Heniy III. was dying, he sent for the King of
Navarre, and in his last hour called upon all his subjects
who were with him to take an oath to Heniy, declaring
that he should be their next king. They all took the oath«
but as soon as the king was dead, it became clear that
many of them had ho thoughts of keeping their promise.
When Henry went into the room where the dead body of
the king was lying, he found the courtiers and servants of
Henry III. all standing together in groups, with their fists
clenched, and talking to each other in low voices, their
sentences often ending with, ''Sooner die a thousand
deaths/' This was not encouraging for him, and what
happened afterwards had all the same meaning.
In Paris, the people were filled with joy on hearing of
the death of the king ; nothing was heard in the streets
but songs and laughter, fireworks were let off, and the citi-
zens made feasts for each other in the streets. Clement,
the murderer, was spoken of as a saint; pictures and
busts of him were put up in the houses of many of the
Parisians, and even in the churches and on altars. The
people who showed so much delight were all friends of the
Guises, who felt that now the death of the great duke was
Jb Iba poffR 307.
* '" '^"'^^^^^^mi^^mmmmmmmmmmmmmmfmmmimiKm
XL.] HENRY IV, 297
revenged, Henry III. being no longer king, the next
thing that the Guises were anxious about was to prevent
Henry of Navarre from succeeding him. The head of
the family was now a brother of Henry of Guise, called
the Duke of Mayenne; Guise had left a son who was
still a child, so young as to be of no importance to his
party.
Mayenne had some hopes that one of his family might
be chosen as king by the Eoman Catholics, instead of the
heretic Henry, and there were many other people who
hoped the same thing for themselves or their friends.
The King of Spain, for one, said he had a right to the
crown because he had married the sister of the three last
kings; and a duke, who had married another sister of
the same kings, also claimed the crown, but was said to
have less right to it than Philip, because his wife was
the younger sister of Philip's wife. The Guises chose out
one of their relations who was old and weak, and would
do nothing but what pleased them, and caUed him King
Charles X. The King of Spain thought it best for the
present to join with the Guises and help them as much as
possible, so as to defeat completely the King of Navarre,
after which he hoped to be able to arrange everything with
the Soman Catholics in his own way. Therefore he sent
men and money to the Duke of Mayenne.
From this time, the people who were friends both of
the Leaguers and of Philip of Spain were said to belong to
the Union, because the two parties were joined or united
together. Many Frenchmen, who cared for their country
more than for either the old or the new religion, took the
side of Henry, because his enemies were the friends of the
298 HENRY IV, [CH.
Spaniards, and they did not like to think of Philip even
proposing to be King of France. Some of the Boman
Catholic nobles, really wishing to make friends with
Henry, sent to ask him again to become a Boman Catholic,
or, if he would not do so at once, to allow himself to be
taught by some of the Boman Catholic nobles, and see
whether he would not come to agree with them as to which
was the right religion. Henry replied that they could not
expect him to change so suddenly, but that he would at
some future time hold a council on the subject, and con-
sider what it was best to do ; and that he would always
treat the Boman Catholics welL
Some years later Henry made up his mind to change
his religion and become a Boman Catholic, as so many of
his subjects wished. He was too proud to do it as soon
as his subjects chose to ask it of him, but he saw by
degrees, as the civil war went on for year after year, that
he should never come to be king, and there would never
be peace in France, by any other means. There were
plenty of reasons to be given for his change. The war
was the worst thing there could be for France ; no one
could live happily or prosperously in the country while it
lasted; the poor people were suffering a great deal, and
Henry, while he was taken up with fighting, was not able
to do anything for the help of any of his subjects, and,
while he had no power over the Boman Catholics, was not
able to help the Protestants.
But what is wrong can never be made right, however
much good may come from it ; and it is wrong for a man
to say he believes what he does not believe, and to pre-
tend to think good what he really thinks bad. Nothing
XL.] HENRY IV. 299
can ever make such conduct right, and many of the
greatest and best men who have lived have died and
suffered pain and trouble of every sort sooner than make
a change such as Henry made. But it is by no means
certain what Henry did really believe, and whether it
were much more untrue for him to call himself a Boman
Catholic than to caU himself a Protestant. He would
have been a greater and no doubt a better man than
he was, if he had thought more about serious matters,
made up his mind what he believed, and told the truth
about it honestly and openly; but as it was, I do not
think that what he did was really so bad as it at first
seems to be.
It should be said that several of his Protestant friends
and ministers advised him to turn Eoman Catholic for his
good and the good of the country.
In Henry IV. good and bad qualities were joined
together as they are in eveiy other man, but there was far
more good in him than there had been for many reigns in
the French kings. He had been brought up in a way
most unlike that in which young princes are usually
treated. He ran about with the viUage boys bareheaded
and barefooted, always out of doors,, both in summer and
winter ; when he grew strong enough he used sometimes
to work in the fields as if he had been one of them, and to
feed on the coarse bread which they ate. He learned to
be bold, active, and vigorous, and grew up strong and
healthy. AU this was of great use to him when his wars
began, and he and his army had to go through many hard-
ships and difficulties. Henry was lively, gay, and very
kind and friendly to his soldiers and servants, talking to
300 HENRY IV. [CH.
them, finding out what they wanted, and whether there
were anything he could do for them. Every one who
met him was delighted by his manners, rich and poor
alike.
His first idea, when he found he must resist the Union
by war, was to make himself master of Paris ; but this he
found he was not strong enough to do. The Duke of
Mayenne had called together an army of his friends, who
were meeting in the capital, and Henry, who had been
encamped with his soldiers outside the walls, was obliged
to give up all hopes for the present of winning Paris, and
led his men into the north of France, hoping that Mayenne
would follow him there. He was disappointed, however,
when Mayenne arrived with a much larger army than
Henry had expected. A great battle was fought between
them at a place named Arques, where Henry and his chief
general had themselves worked as engineers, blocking up
roads by which they could be attacked, and putting up
defences on all sides. Their men, seeing them at work
themselves, had helped them eagerly.
At the beginning of the battle both armies were partly
successful, but at last Henry's soldiers began to give way.
Henry in despair cried out — " Are there not fifty gentle-
men to be found in France ready to die with their king ? "
He then turned to the Protestant minister of the camp,
and bade him sing the psalm. The psalm was one which
was always sung by the Huguenots in battle, and which
had been heard when they won some of their most famous
victories. When the Huguenots heard this, and all the
soldiers saw Henry at their head, all their usual courage
came back, and as Mayenne sent no help to his troops.
XL.] HENRY IV, 301
Henry soon saw his enemies driven backwards, and at last
quite out of the camp. Mayenne was not strong enough
to attack him again.
The fighting went on at times all through the end of
that year and the beginning of the next. The next year
was fought the battle which, of all those gained by Henry,
is the one of which people thought and talked most, and
where he won the most glory for himself. It was at
Ivry, which is, like Arques, in the north part of France.
The king, as usual, had many fewer men than his enemies ;
still he was on this day as cheerful and gay as was usual*
with him in times of danger, and he went about among
the men talking to them, and saying all he could to raise
their spirits and give them hope for the battle. There
is a story told of him this day, which, shows some of the
good qualities for which he was so much beloved by his
subjects.
He had with him a German officer, named Schomberg,
commanding a body of cavalry. A few days before, this
officer had asked the king for money for the troops, and
Henry, who had but little money to spare, and was vexed
at being asked for more, hastily answered that no man of
honour ever asked for money on the eve of a battle.
On the day of the battle Henry remembered this speech,
which he knew to have been unjust, as well as unkind,
and going to Schomberg's tent, he said to him, " M. de
Schomberg, I offended you the other day ; this may be the
last day of my Hfe, and I do not wish to carry away with
me the honour of a gentleman. I know your courage and
your merit. Forgive me, and embrace me." The colonel
answered, *' Sire, it is true that your majesty wounded me
302 HENRY IV. [CH.
the other day, tod now you kill me, for the honour you
do me obliges me to die in your service."
A king who knew when he had been wrong, still more,
who would own it, was something to which the French
in those days had long been unused.
Just before the fight b^an the king made a short
speech to his men. He told them, if their flags should be
lost in the battle, to follow the white plume of peacock's
feathers in his helmet His horse was adorned in the
same way, that they might be easUy seen and known by
*both friends and enemies. The battle was fierce and short.
It ended in the victory of King Heniy, who escaped
unhurt, though he had plunged so £eur into the thickest of
the fight that, for about a quarter of an hour, no one knew
if he were alive or dead. Henry received kindly all t^e
French who submitted to him. ''Give quarter to the
French," he said to his men; " save the French nobles, and
down with the foreigners."
Soon after this battle Henry marched to Paris. His
great wish was to make himself master of the capital, but
he soon found that he was still much too weak to have any
chance against so strong a city. The people of Paris, who
had always been Mendly to the Guises, were now such
bitter enemies to Henry IV., that some of them would
sooner have given themselves up to Spain than submit to
him, and would rather have had Philip II., one of the most
cruel and hard-hearted men that ever lived, to reign over
them, than the heretic king. Philip seriously hoped at
one time to make himself King of France, for now the
king whom the Guises had made for themselves, and
called Charles X., was dead.
XL.] HENRY IV, 303
Henry begieged the city closely, and soon the people
began to sufifer terribly from hunger. When they had
finished all the food they had stored up in the town, they
began to eat cats, dogs, asses, rats, and at last almost anything
that conld be swallowed, even little balls of clay and slate
mixed up with water. It is said that the only thing to be
had cheap in Paris was sermons, for the clergy of the League
preached constantly, probably about the virtues of the
Guises and aU the Eoman Catholics, and the sins of Henry.
The Spanish Ambassador, who was in Paris, gave away
food and money, and did all he could to prevent the
people from yielding themselves up to Henry. Once when
a crowd of people gathered together outside his palace,
and he threw them out some coins, they all cried with one
voice, " No more money ; give us bread ! " After this he
had great cauldrons set up at the comers of the streets,
and gave away horse and donkey flesh, and broth made of
oats and bran.
But even such food as this was used up at last. Six
thousand of the old and weak people of Paris were driven
out of the town, and Henry allowed them to pass through
his army and escape in safety. The Duke of Mayenne, to
whom letter after letter was sent fix)m Paris, made many
promises of help, and at last the King of Spain sent orders
to his general in the Netherlands to go with a large army
to the help of the Leaguers. This he did just as the Paris-
ians were coming to the end of the very last food they
could by any means provide. He marched up with a large
army outside the army of Henry, who, knowing that he
could not hope to resist successfully, broke up his camp;
and one morning the people of Paris found their enemies
304 HENRY IV. [CH.
gone, their city saved, and countless strings of waggons
bringing in provisions by every road It is said that a
hundred thousand people died of hunger in this siege.
For another year Henry lived in the same kind of way,
marching about in the north part of France, taking here
and there a town, or losing one ; and making himself more
and more beloved by the people of the country, and by all
his Mends, for his courage, kindness, and generosity.
Meanwhile his' enemies quarrelled among themselves;
they did not know whom to set up for their king, now that
the man they had called Charles X. was dead.
Their quarrelling made people more and more inclined
to wish for Henry to be their king, and it seemed as it
were he only a Boman Catholic, the greater number of the
French people would be on his side. He asked advice of
many of his chief friends, in particular of one who was a
Protestant, the Duke of Sully, of whom I shall speak in
the next chapter. They advised him to make the change,
thinking that he would never be king at all until he did so.
He made up his mind at last; had the Boman Catholic
religion fuUy explained to him by one of his archbishops,
wrote a declaration that he believed in the Boman Catholic
faith, and the next Sunday heard mass, and was solemnly
received into the church by one of his archbishops. The
next year he was crowned at Chartres, and from that time
was treated by both friends and enemies as the rightful
King of France.
XLI.] HENRY IV. 305
CHAPTEE XLI.
Henrt IV. — {continued),
1598-1610.
As soon as Henry was on the throne as a Eoman Catholic
king, one town after another gave itself up to him. To-
wards the end of the year even Paris came over to his side ;
and he went to hear mass, which is the Boman Catholic
service, in Notre Dame, or Our Lady, one of the most
beautiful churches in Paris. This was a great event, and
the people in the streets looked on with much interest and
cries of " Long live the king !" The Spanish troops went
away out of the capital the same day. Henry saw them
pass out by one of the gates with such pleasure that he
could hardly control himself. " I am beside myself," he
said to some one who came to talk to him of business at
his palace ; " I do not know what you are saying or what
I am answering."
From this time Henry's reign may be said to have be-
gun ; his life of constant fighting was now over, and though
he still had other wars before him, yet they did not after
this take up all his time so that he could think of nothing
else. The towns all over France went on giving them-
selves up to him ; and he made peace separately with each
of his chief enemies, making them all presents of money or
land, or giving them anything else they specially wanted,
a06 HENRY IV. [CH.
8o that they might be his Mends for the fatnie. But with
the Spanish king Heniy knew he conld never be Mends.
There had been no declared war between them, bnt Philip
had helped Henry's sabjects against him privately ever
since the death of Henry HL, and now would never treat
Henry as king, bnt was trying to make some plan by which
his own dan^iter might be Qneen of France.
Henry saw that his reign would never be peacefnl till
Philip's interference was stopped, and nothing would put
an end to it bat war. He therefore declared war against
Spain, and it b^an at once; it lasted for three years, and
then peace was made, with an agreement that the Spaniards
should give back to the French all that they had won in
the war, so that, on the whole, Henry had been saccessfdL
He had had much to do and to think of besides the war.
There were continual troubles still in France between the
Protestants and Soman Catholics, though, now that the
king was a sincere Mend of both, there was no more fear
of such troubles and honors as there had been under
Catherine of Medids and her sons.
King Henry was always trying to make the Soman
CathoUcs his Mends, by giving them places and favours of
all kinds ; and to the Huguenots, who he knew were his
Mends already, he gave less. This made the Huguenots
very angry, and they said that he was ungrateful to his old
Mends and servants who had stood by him in his troubles,
and helped him to win his crown. They did not see how
great his difficulties were, and perhaps did not enough
consider how important it was for them that he should
please the Soman Catholics, so as to be able tokeep himself
on the throne and help the Huguenots as he was doing.
XLi.] HENR Y IV. 307
Tbffj could never have expected such a friend in
another Soman Catholic king ; still, what they said seems
to have had a great deal of truth in it. Kind and charm-
ing in his manners to every one, both friends and enemies,
the king cared little for any one who was not close at hand,
and if his friends were away from him or died> soon left
off thinking about them. He treated all his old enemies
very generously, as soon as they seemed to wish to be his
friends. The Duke of Mayenne, who had been the head
of them all, came over to Henry's side soon after the Pope
had sent his absolution or solemn forgiveness to the king
for having been a heretic. He had refused to grant this
for some time, and when he did grant it, many of the
Catholics came Over at once to Henry, the Duke of May-
enne among them.
The first time that the king met with the duke, he was
walking in a park with his chief minister, the Duke of
Sully, Mayenne came up, and falling on one knee, pro-
mised fidelity to Henry. Henry received him very kindly,
and asked him to come and see some new improvements
which he had made in the park. He then set off walking
so fast that Mayenne, who was fat and lame, could hardly
keep up with him. He puffed and panted, till at last the
king stopped and asked whether he were going too fast.
Mayenne answered that he was almost dead, at which
Henry clapped him on the shoulder and said, cheerfully,
" That, my friend, is all the vengeance I shall ever take
upon you ; " and so sent him away.
Of aU the king's friends, old or new, the most im-
portant for himself and France was the minister with
whom he had been walking when this meeting with May-
308 HENRY IV, [CH.
enne happened, the Duke of Sully. This great man was a
Protestant; he had been a servant of Heniy in the old
times of trouble and war, and he stayed with him after he
had become king, and after the change of religion which
made many of his Protestant friends leave him.
Sully's family name was Bethune ; he was made Duke
of Sully by the king, and it is the name by which he is
usually known. He was a proud man, harsh and vain, but
a faithful friend of Henry, working always for his good and
the welfare of France ; industrious and honest. In par-
ticular, he understood more about money than any other
Frenchman of that time.
Henry was so poor before he was crowned king, that he
sometimes had to invite himself to dinner with one of his
officers, because he had no food in his larder. After he was
master of Paris and of the royal treasure, it was not very
much better. The people of the country had been made poor
by the wars, and were not able to pay so many as usual of
the taxes upon which the king depended for money, but still
they paid quite enough for Henry to have been tolerably
well off, if the money had ever reached him. But a great
deal of it never did. The people who were employed to
collect it, and who ought to have paid it to the royal
treasury, often kept it for themselves, or sometimes it was
collected so carelessly that there was not near so much as
there ought to be. Sully put a stop both to the careless-
ness and the dishonesty. He took great pains himself to
find out how much money ought to come from each tax in
a certain time, and then made the men who collected it
show him accounts of how much had come, and of what
they had done with it. Some had no accounts to show.
XLi.] HENRY IV, 309
and some had very incomplete ones. Sully turned out of
their places all the men who seemed to have been acting
dishonestly, and some of them who had grown very rich
by stealing the king's money were tried in a court of law
and fined, that is, made to pay a large sum of money, so
that the king got back part of what, by rights, belonged to
him. Sully next made fresh rules about the payment of
the taxes, and saw that they were carried out ; and as he
was perfectly honest himself, Henry soon began to find his
treasury filling again, and each year, as the people grew
richer and richer in the long peace, Henry had more
and more money to spend.
The king and the minister were not always quite agreed
as to the best way of spending this money. Sully thought
nothing so important as a good army of soldiers ; he knew
that Henry still had many enemies, and was always expect-
ing that some day another war would break out and the
king would want to gather together a large army. Sully
kept a large store of treasure set aside for this particular
purpose. Henry also looked upon his soldiers as very
important, but he cared for many other matters as well,
which Sully looked upon as waste or even worse. He was
vexed when Henry spent in building, hunting, or gambling
the money which he had gathered together with so much
difficulty. He was not pleased either if the king spent it
in encouraging manufactures, that is, the making of all
kinds of goods, or on agriculture, which means improving
the land for growing seed of all kinds ; though every one
now agrees with Henry that these ways of using money
were much for the good of the country. Sully, besides
being so useful as a minister, was a real friend to Henry.
310 HENRY IV. [CH.
The king would consult with him over what he was going
to do, and SuUy gave him much good advice, and was
sometimes able to prevent him from doing things which
would have brought great trouble upon him if not upon
his people.
When Henry became a Eoman Catholic he promised
his old Huguenot Mends that he would always protect the
Huguenots and their religion. When he found that they
were growing angry at his not seeming to care about them,
and that they felt he was breaking his word to them, he
resolved to do something which should show his friend-
ship for them. He made an edict or royal order, which is
known as the Edict of Nantes, and which was meant to
settle the question that had never been settled yet, of how
the Protestants were to be treated in France, how far they
might worship in their own way without being disturbed
by their neighbours, and whether they might be employed
like Boman Catholics in the business of the country.
Treaties had often been made to settle aU these matters,
but they had never been observed for more than a short
time, and often, in parts of the country where the Eoman
Catholics were strong, they had not been observed at alL
The king's edict was to last as a law for ever, and it really
did last for nearly ninety years, so that the Protestants
had time to feel its good results.
The decree gave the Huguenots a right to have services
undisturbed in most of the towns of France, and also in
the private houses of many of the chief nobles, where the
people who lived in the country far from a town might
hear the Huguenot service. They were allowed — ^like the
Catholics — ^to send their children to any schools or colleges
XLi.] HENRY IV. 311
they wished, or might, if they liked, set up schools and
colleges for themselves, and they might hold offices in the
State. The Huguenots, from this time, were able to live
comfortably in the country; many families who would
have been driven over to England or other Protestant
countries, if some change had not been made in the laws
about Protestants, now settled down in France, and as they
were specially honest, prudent, and industrious, they soon
became some of the most prosperous of Henry's subjects,
and France grew richer through their industry.
Henry's reign lasted for about twelve years after the
Edict of Nantes, and they were years of peace for him, and
of riches and quiet for France. Henry, with Sully to
advise him, made improvements of all kinds in the coun-
try ; edicts were made on every subject that has to do with
land ; about marshes to be drained, forests to be cut down,
lakes to be made, rivers which were to have their courses
improved, or bridges built over them. Many new grains
and plants were brought into France and grown there*
Among other things Henry was specially interested in was
the mulberry tree, which some of his subjects, after much
difficulty, had succeeded in transplanting to France. The
mulberry is a tree on which silkworms find their food, and
when the trees became flourishing, silkworms were brought
to live upon them, so that silk might be produced cheaply
in France.
Still Henry was not able to give himself up entirely
to these peaceful matters. He had at one time to go to
war with a prince who had a small country at the south-
east comer of France, the Duke of Savoy, who was rash
enough to quarrel with Henry. The king and Sully
312 HENRY IV. [CH.
marched against him with a strong army, and were suc-
cessful, as might have been expected.
At another time one of his chief generals and oldest
friends, the Marshal of Biron, made a league with the
Spaniards and plotted against Henry. The plot was be-
trayed to the king by one of the men who had taken part
in it, and he found to his great sorrow that Biron had
shared in the plot. Henry sent for Biron to come to court,
and when he arrived, for he did not dare refuse to obey,
the king asked him questions about what he had done, and
tried to persuade him to confess his guilt, by which he
might have saved his life. But Biron refused to confess
that he had done wrong ; and was at last arrested by the
king's orders and thrown into prison. He was tried, and
there proved to be no doubt of his having been a traitor
to the king ; among other things, he had secretly been the
friend of the Duke of Savoy, when he was leading the
king's army against him, and had sent him word of how
many men the king had, which way they were coming, and
as many of Henry's secrets as he himself knew. Biron
was condemned to death to his great surprise ; for he had
never believed that the king would make up his mind to
agree to it. He was studjdng the stars to try and read the
future when the officer came to tell him his sentence, and
he was beheaded a few hours later. Henry was much
<iistressed at this sad end of a man who had been one of
his most trusted friends, and if it had not been for Sully,
would probably have spared his life, though there seems
no doubt that he deserved death.
The peaceful years of Henrjr's reign passed by with no
events of much importance to the country, except the mar-
1"^ ' W" '" • » ' ■ ■■ ' » ■ ^i^^T-^w^^p— pit^»Tyiy»»^BP»-»i«By»»iT»PWT^^r»i I . I ly
XLL] HENRY IV, 313
riage of the king and the birth of a son, at which all the
people of France were much delighted. He had been
married before, but had agreed so ill with his wife that
they had been separated and broken off their marriage.
The king was not much more fortunate in his second wife.
She was an Italian princess of the same family as Cathe-
rine de Medicis, ugly, grave, and sulky. She brought
some of her own countrymen with her, and cared for them
much more than for the king and his friends.
Henry was a friend of Queen Elizabeth of England, and
they used to make plans together for resisting the power
of Spain, and making some arrangement by which aU the
Protestant countries of Europe could join together and
resist the Eoman Catholics ; for though Henry was a Eoman
Catholic king, he was always on the side of the Protestants
out of his own country. Sully used to go from France to
England, carrying messages from Henry, and bringing
back Elizabeth's answers. She had helped Henry both
with men and money in his wars, and though there had
been quarrels between them, their friendship lasted till
the death of Elizabeth, which happened seven years before
that of Henry.
Towards the end of Henry's reign, the King of Spain,
finding he was not able to conquer the people of the
Netherlands^ who had been fighting against him for so
many years, made a truce with them for twelve years, by
which they really gained all that they had been fighting
for. The only country in which disputes were still going
on between the Eoman Catholics and Protestants was
Germany. The duke of a small duchy died, and a great
dispute arose as to who should be his heir ; two Protestant
314 HENR Y IV. [CH.
princes were on one side, the Emperor, who was a Boman
Catholic, on the other. It was so important to Henry to
have friends ruling the provinces which made up this duchy,
that he prepared a large army to lead to the help of the
Protestant princes, and made great preparations for leaving
the country himself for some time. The queen was named
Eegent, with a council of fifteen of the wisest men in the
country to help her. She had never been crowned since
she came into France, and she was very anxious that this
should be done before Henry left Paris. The king had
been persuaded to agree.
At this time Henry, in spite of all the success which
he had won, was gloomy and unhappy. He knew that he
W enemies aU round him. His wife was his enemy, and
many of those people who seemed to be his friends were
really the friends of the King of Spain, and were longing
for some opportunity for getting rid of the king, who would
never let France become in any way subject to Spain.
During Henry's reign it had several times happened that
men had tried to murder him. He had always escaped
hitherto without being even hurt, but at this particular
time, when he was about to start on this war to help the
Protestant princes, he considered himself in special danger,
and was anxious to leave Paris as soon as possible.
The coronation passed off safely, and the king was to
start in six days. The next day he was unwell, and said
that he should stay at home, but his servant advised him
to go out, saying that the air would refresh him. He at'
last made up his mind to go and pay a visit to SuUy, who
was ill, and he set off to drive to his house in an open car-
riage. He was sitting between two of liis friends reading
I
i •
XLi.] HENRY IV. 316
a letter, which one of them had shown to him, when the
carriage was stopped for a moment by a block in the
street. While it stood still, a man who had been follow-
ing it for some way, sprang up on the wheel and plunged
his knife twice into the king's body. Henry cried out,
" I am wounded ;" and then fell backward dead. One of
his friends threw a cloak over him, called out that he was
only wounded, and told the coachman to drive back to the
palace.
The murderer, whose name was Ravaillac, was at
once taken prisoner, and soon afterwards executed. He
seems to have been half a madman, who had been in Paris
for some time waiting for the chance of killing Henry, and
telling several people what he meant to do. Of these only
one lady had tried to warn the king, and she was not be-
lieved. It is probable that many of those who seemed to
be Henry's friends knew of the plot, and did what they
could to make it succeed. Certainly many of the courtiers
and ministers were glad when they heard the news. The
common people and all those of Henry's subjects who
loved their country and hated Spain were deeply grieved,
and felt that the loss of their king was one that never
could be repaired. In this they were right. No king
of France has done so much for his country since, and
the plans which Henry would have carried out had he
lived, had now no one to care for them, and were heard of
no more. The Protestants had no more such friends as
Henry. This king is probably, of all the kings of France,
the one whose memory has been the most loved by his
people.
316, LOUIS XIII. [CH.
CHAPTER XLIL
Louis XIII. (1610-1643).
When Henry IV. died, the queen, Marie of Medicis, made
no pretence of being sorry for her husband's loss; the
only thing of which she thought was how to make herself
regent during her son's childhood. The eldest son of Henry
IV., who now became Louis XIII., was a child of nine
years old. It was natural that Mary should be regent,
because Henry had already settled that she should govern
for him while he was away on the war which he was just
about to begin at the end of his life ; but he had meant
her to have a council of some of the wisest men of the
country to help md advise her, and now she hoped to have
all the power for herself, unchecked by any one. Most of
the great lords at the court were her friends, as they had
most of them been the enemies of Henry, and by their
help she was able that very day to persuade the Parlia-
ment of Paris to say that she alone should be regent of
the kingdom. The Parliament of Paris was not in the
least like our Parliament in England ; it was a body of
men whose business was to judge and do justice, and
who therefore were not the proper people to settle such a
question as the regency. However, the queen, with the
great lords to help her, was too strong to be disobeyed,
and the Parliament did as she wished, and the people
XLii.] LOUIS XIIL 317
obeyed the Parliament as if it had done nothing but what
was right and usual Two hours , after Henry had been
murdered, Mary was Eegent of France.
The Duke of Sully was ill in his own house when mes-
sengers came to tell him that the king was dangerously
wounded. He set off at once in great grief and distress
to go to the king's palace, the Louvre. He was met on
the way by different friends, who all begged him to turn
back and go home, telling him the king was dead, and that
if he went on, he himself would soon be dead as well.
Sully consented at last to turn back. The next day, how-
ever, he went to the court, saw the queen and the little
Dauphin, and promised to serve them faithfully as he had
served Henry. This promise, however, he was not able to
keep ; he found it impossible to work with Mary's friends,
who were dishonest and foolish, took what they could find
for themselves, and let everything else fall into confusion.
He left public Kfe altogether, and went to live at one of his
castles, where he spent the thirty years of his life that
were still to come.
Mary had one almost certain way of persuading the
lords of France to be her friends, and that was making
them handsome presents. She gave to each of them what
he most wished for ; to one a fortune, to another a rich
wife, to a third a province to rule oVer, to a fourth a place
in the Government, to a fifth a title. The great riches that
Sully had laid up for Henry IV. to use in his wars against
Spain began to dwindle away as the queen took from them
whatever she wanted to satisfy her great lords.
The army that Henry had prepared for war in Ger-
many was broken up ; a small part of it was sent to attack
318 LOUIS XI IL [CH.
the town which he had wished to take, and succeeded in
driving away the Eoman Catholics, who weremaste^ there,
but after this they did no more; a kind of peace was
made ; the French soldiers came back to France, and nothing
more was done about the matter for some years. So the
four years of the queen's regency passed by, and when
Louis was thirteen, she had him declared to be of age, and
his own reign began. Mary had really as much power
after this as before, for while her son was still so young,
he did everything that she wished.
The States -General were called together soon after
Louis began to reign, and after this they did not meet
again for more than a hundred and seventy years. At
^meeting the deputies did nothing of gJ iportance;
they disputed with each other for some time, chiefly about
the diflferent means by which money might be procured for
the Government, for the people of France were in a state of
great distress, which was partly brought on by the high
taxes they were called upon to pay, because the king had
no other means of finding money for himself. The depu-
ae, deacriW the ««e ot the U»« ^ ^ ^.
" Your poor people are but skin and bone, worn out, down
beat, more dead than alive ; we beseech you to do some-
thing to settle the disorders of the taxes." However,
nothing was settled to relieve them ; the deputies drew up
their list of complaints, of which I have told you before,
and as soon as it was done, the king closed the States-
General by shutting up the hall in which they usually met,
and saying there was to be no more discussion there.
The king promised, as the kings always did, to consider
the complaints ; but, as so often happened, nothing ever
XLiL] LOUIS XIU. 319
came of Ids considering. It seems curious that the people
of Prance can have been satisfied for so many hundred
years to have no better arrangement for expressing their
wishes about the government of the country than the
States-General, from which they hardly ever gained the
things they wanted. The wishes of the people were a
matter which the Government of France scarcely considered
at alL The kings were bent upon gaining more and more
power for themselves, which they did with great success
under the reigns of Louis XIII. and his son.
Mary of Medicis, the queen-mother, was, as I have
said, much inclined to be the friend of Spain, and now
that Henry was no longer there to object to it, she deter-
mined to keep an agreement which she had already made
with the Spanish courts that two of her children should
marry two of the children of the Spanish king. Her eldest
daughter, Elizabeth, still quite a child, was sent into
Spain ; and a little Spanish princess, Anne of Austria, was
brought into France, and married soon after to Louis XIII.
The king^s wife, when she became a woman, was an import-
ant person in the Government of the country, and brought
France into many troubles. Louis cared very little about
his wife ; but he was the sort of person who likes always
to have some favourite with him, and who, when once he
has a favourite, is apt to listen to him in everything, and
give up his own way to do only what his favourite advises.
Troubles soon rose between him and his mother, who was
not able to keep the power for herself as she had hoped to
do. She joined in plots against her son and his fiiends,
and at last he sent her away from . Paris altogether, and
exiled her to a distant part of France.
320 LOUIS XIIL [CH.
It was of great importance for the country that Louis
should choose his favourite well ; in this he did not suc-
ceed at first; one or two of his favourites were men who
could do no good to him or to the country. But at last
he had the good fortune to find, and the good sense to
value, a man who is now considered as one of the greatest
statesmen there has ever been in France or any other
country ; who brought France to great power and glory,
carried out much of what Henry IV. had wished to do for
the good of the country, and by his wisdom and strength
prevented Louis from receiving any harm from the great
war which disturbed aU Europe in this reign. His name
was Eichelieu ; he was bishop of a small tpwn at the time
of the meeting of the States-General ; and he was chosen
then to take up to the king the list of complaints from
the clergy ; afterwards he became a great friend of the
queen-mother's, the Pope made him a cardinal, and he
becamjB a member of the king's council, and at last
chief minister.
In Gtermany the questions between the Protestants and
Boman Catholics had never yet been settled ; the Emperor
was Eoman Catholic, and many of the princes of different
parts of the country Protestant. A good many of them
joined themselves into a band against the Emperor. The
struggle which then began lasted for thirty years, and
is known as the Thirty Years' War. For some time the
Germans fought only among themselves, and no other
nation took part in the war, except the Spaniards, who
were always friends of the Emperor, though the Emperor
of Germany was no longer King of Spain as well, as he
had been in the time of Charles V. Many of the chief
XLii.] LOUIS XIIL 321
men in France were secretly friends of the Spanish Mng,
and they were inclined to persuade Louis to let France
join the Eoman Catholic side, and help in making the
Emperor more powerful than ever in Germany. Cardinal
Jlichelieu thought differently. He said that Louis, though
he kept down the Protestants at home, ought to help them
abroad, so as to make the Emperor and Spanish king less
powerful instead of more, and to have the Protestant
princes of Germany for his Mends. Bichelieu arranged
a league or agreement of friendship between several of the
nations in the north of Europe, who were all enemies of
the Spanish. The English, the French, the Dutch, the
princes of North Germany, the Danes, the Swedes, all be-
longed to it, and the King of Denmark was chosen to be
their leader. In Italy too, at the other end of Europe,
Bichelieu was able to help the enemies of Spain, and
though there was not open war at first between the two
countries, this was the beginning of a struggle which lasted
all through Eichelieu's life.
There were many difficulties in Bichelieu's way besides
the difficulties of the war which he hoped to persuade
Louis to carry on axrainst the Spaniards. One was that
he never fXL tTuxe king would go on trusting him
and being his fiiend. He had many enemies at court, and
some of them were the most important people next to the
king, in the whole country. The mother of Louis was
one, his wife another, his brother a third. They were all
fiiends of the Spaniards, and all hated Bichelieu; they
made plots to murder him, and were always trying to turn
the weak king against him.
Another difficulty was that the French were not at
Y
322 LOUIS XIII. [CH.
peace among thenmelves* The Huguenots, among whom
were the best and bravest men (^ the country, were not
satisfied ; and at the banning of Louis's reign there had
been many small wars against them, which had always
ended in the same way, by a peace being made in which
different &yours for which they wished were promised and
never given to them« One of the most important Hugne-
not, towns was called La BocheUa This is a town on the
west coast of France, abouf^ two-thirds of the way down,
with a fine harbour protected by some small islands a
little way &om the shore. It had always been a kind of
headquarters of the Huguenots, and they had been much
vexed at a royal fort having been built on purpose to keep
the town quiet, and to make it easy for the king to send
troops in and prevent any rising up against him by the
townspeople. This fort was called Fort Louis, and was
full of royal troops. The people of La Eochelle believed
Bichelieu to be the enemy of the Huguenots, and so he
had shown himself to be in France, though out of France
he was persuading the king to take their side against their
enemy, the King of Spain. They rose up against him, and
called upon the English to help them.
At this time the English, who had been friends of the
French, were suddenly persuaded by the Spaniards to turn
against thenu The English proposed to join with the
people of La Eochelle, and help them to free the town from
Bichelieu and the French Government. They secretly
hoped that they should be able to take it for themselves,
but they soon found that the town had no idea of giving
itself up to them. The Huguenots, though they were
angry with the French Government, had not forgotten that
5CLII.] LOUIS XIIL 323
they were Frenchmen, and would have no foreigners in
their town. An Englishman, the Duke of Buckingham,
brought a fleet down the coast of France, and came near to
Eochelle, but was never able to give any help to the towns-
people.
Bichelieu gathered together a large army, and came to
besiege the town. For a year he and his army lay outside
the waUs, the soldiers continually at work to prevent any
food from passing in. They made forts outside the part of
the town that was turned towards the land,^and with great
labour and difficulty they made a mole or heap of earth
like a wall, running almost across the mouth of the har-
bour, so that no ships could pass into La Bochelle.
Thus the people of Eochelle were entirely shut out
from -an help. The English tried to make' their way
through the mole with food, and invented a contrivance
for blowing up some part of the waU. ; but it was of no use,
their contrivance failed, and the English sailed away and
left the town to itself.
Richelieu had the king with him outside the walls, but
after some months ' Louis grew tired and went away to
another part of the coimtry, Bichelieu knew that he was
always in danger while the king was away from him, for
Louis always listened to* those of his friends who were
near at hand, and he was among people who were enemies
to the great minister ; but the siege of Eochelle was too
important to be left, and Eichelieu stayed there with his
army. The six thousand men in the town resisted with
wonderful courage. Their governor was a man named
Guiton, who, when he was chosen to be their leader, laid
his dagger on the table and said that it should run into
324 LOUIS XIIL [cH.
the heart of the first man who spoke of giving up the
town. He enc6nraged the people to hope even when the
English sailed away and, left them.
They begc^i to suffer terribly from hunger ; they ate
grass anii shell-fish which they found on the beach at low
water ; they turned all the old and weak people out of
the^town, and refused to open their gates to them again,
though they were attacked by the enemy. At last the
English fleet appeared once mdre, and^triied again to break
the mole, but the French ships beat them back. They
made up their minds that, they could do notjiing, and
began to make a treaty with the ife'rench. When the
people of Eochelle heard this they gave themselves up in
despair and submitted to Bichelieu. When he came into
the town the soldiers were horrified to see the streets
filled with corpses, that those who still lived had not the
strength to bury. One ' morning, while the siege still
lasted, the sentinels had been found at their post dead
from hunger.
Bochelle, when it had given itself up, was not unkindly
treated by Bichelieu and Louis, though from this time the
townsmen lost such powers as they had had before of
governing themselves ; they were made completely subject
to the king, and Eochelle has never been a town of any
importance since. Many of the Huguenot sailors who had
lived there in great numbers left France altogether and
settled in Holland.
After the siege of Bochelle was thus ended, Bichelieu
madS' the king begin to take part openly in the Thirty
Years* War. I have not space here to give an account of
the events of that war, not even of the events in it which
Vl^» 0'^^-
XLiL] LOUIS XIIL 325
had to do with France. I will say only that Louis went
first into Italy,, where he distinguished himself by his
courage in crossingHhe Alps in the middle of winter, and
succeeded in driving away the Spaniards from the particu-
lar'town they were then trying to take. He then came
bact into France, and Eichelieu spent some years secretly
preparing troops and money for the war. The French
declared open war seven years after the siege of Bochelle,
and they carried it on all the rest of Eichelieu's life, which
lasted for seven years mwe.
During this time one ^vent happened in France which
was jLgreat joy to all the people of France. The queen,
after having been married to Louis since they were both
children, at last had a child bom, a son, Who afterwards be-
came the famous Louis XIV. Before the birth of this child
it had always been feared that whenever Louis died his
brother, a very bad young man, would become king in his
place ; but now the country was saved from him and from
all question as to who should succeed. The war was, on
the whole, good for France ; the power of the Emperor of
Germany was much weakened, so that France had less to
fear ftom him; the French won for themselves many
places in Spain and Italy, and Eichelieu had persuaded
the king to distrust those members of his family and
court who were always secretly speaking and acting in
favour of Spain.
Many plots were made against the life of Eichelieu,
but they were all discovered, and the enemies who had
made them punished. EicheUeu's last journey was with
the king and the royal army, who were marching towards
Spain to attack their great enemy iu his own country. He
326 LOUIS XIIL [CH,
was ill, but travelled in great splendour, and had so many-
servants and attendants with him that he was obliged to
keep some way behind Louis, as there would not have been
room in many of 'the small towns through which they
{^sed to receive the followers of both at once. A young
favourite of Louis, named Cinq Mars, made a plan at this
time to murder Bichelieu, and tried to persuade the king
to join in it. L^uis, who had grown tired of his great
minister, was at one time inclined to agree, and Bichelieu,
hearing of what was going on, kept away from Louis's
camp for some time. At last Louis found out that Cinq
Mars had also been making a treaty with Spain against
him and his friends. Eichelieu's enemies were also the
enemies of their coimtry. They were tried, found guilty
of treason, and put to death. The king wrote to Richelieu,
who was in a town some little way off : "I love you more
than ever, whatever false stories people may tell/'
The war against Spain went on well, though both the
king'and Richelieu went back to Paris soon after the dis-
covery of this plot. Richelieu was carried most of the way
in a litter. He grew worse and worse, and did not live many
months longer. On the last day of his life he asked his
doctors how much longer he had to live. Most of them,
wishing to please him, told him that perhaps, he might
still recover, that God would not let a man die who was
so necessary to France ; but one of them had the courage
to tell the truth and answered, " In twenty-four hours you
will be cured or dead." " That is what I call speaking,"
said Richelieu; ** I understand you." He died calmly and
quietly, ^ter having received a last visit from the king, to
whom he- gave advice about the government of the country.
XLiL] LOUIS XIIL 327
Louis himself died a few months later. During the
whole of this reign Bichelieu had been the really import-
ant person in the kingdom. Louis himself was a weak
and rather foolish man, and what he did was always de-
cided for him by the advice of his friends and ministers.
He had enough good sense to know that Eichelieu was the
mail to whom the affairs of France might most safely be
trusted. Bichelieu had done other things for France be-
sides governing the country weU and defending it against
its enemieS/; he had encouraged poets to make poems and
authors to write books ; he had set up what is called the
French Academy, a body of men supposed to be made up
of the best writers in France, who settle what is good and
what is bad in IVench writings, and give prizes for what
they consider the best. I do not know that the Academy
is really of much use, but it was supposed that it would
improve the writings of Frenchmen, and the French were
pleased at its being founded. It exists to this day.
Eichelieu did more than almost any other Frenchmaii to
weaken the great lords, who had before his time had a good
deal of power in the country, and to make the king so strong
that he would be able to do what he pleased without caring
for his subjects' wishes. The French, having no parliament
to flpd fault with what their kings did in a peaceable way,
had no means of getting what they wished except rising
up against them in a rebellion ; but Eichelieu was too strong
for any one to dare to do this in his time, and so Louis
XIII. became more and more powerful the longer he lived,
and his power passed on to his son and increased with him
still more. This was not a good thing for the French people,
and came to a bad end at last. Eichelieu was not loved
328 LOUIS XIII, [CH.
by the people of the country ; though they did not under-
stand that he was doing harm by- adding to the king^s
strength, they disliked him for laying on heavy taxes, and
being cruel and unfeeling to them in many ways. There
was a feeling of joy through the whole country when
he died.
/
^
/
^y
V .^o
^/
V y
xuii.] LOUIS XIV. 329
CHAPTER XLIII.
Louis XIV. (1643-1715).
When Louis XIII. died in 1643, his son Louis was only
four years old. This child, who became king wjiile he was
hardly old enough to know anything about, it, had such a
reign as no King of France or England has ever had before
or since. It lasted for seventy-two years. When it began
Charles L was King of England, and when it ended Oeorge
I. had just come to the throne. During all that happened
in England in those seventy-two years — ^the war between
Charles L and his people, Charles's execution^ the reign of
Cromwell as Protector, the return of Charles II. to be king,
the whole of his reign, the reign of his brother James IL,
and the disturbances that were caused by his being a
Boman Catholic, the Revolution by which he was driven
out of the country and William III. made king, during the
reign of William III., and during the reign of Anne — Louis
XIV. still governed the French people. And his long
reign was full of great events ; it had in it five wars, some
long and all important Many great men lived in it^ who
not only made themselves remembered by what they did
and wrote, but made eveiy one admire the time in which
they lived, and speak of it as an age by itself, though all
Frenchmen at that time admired the king so greatly and
believed so firmly that everything good in the country
390 LOUIS XIV, [CH.
came finom him, that the age of great men was called
after him, and not after the names of any of the people
who really made it famous, and is known as the age of
Louis XIV.
When Louis XTTL died, he settled by his will that his
wife, Anne of Austria, should be B^ent of France, and
that she should have a council, made up of men whom he
chose for the purpose, to help her to govern.
Anne had till then had no power in the country ; but
she was ambitious, and now that she had an opportunity
of making herself the most important person in the king-
dom, she did not lose the chance, but managed to persuade
the Parliament of Paris to declare that she should be
r^ent alone, so that the council of regency never had any
power in tlie country at alL
The chief friend of the queen was the man who soon
afterwards became the chief minister of France, and who
had been a friend and helper of Sichelieu's in the last
reign; his name was Mazarin, and the Pope had lately
made him a cardinaL Anne of Austria had so strong an
affection for Mazarin, that some people believe that after
Louis XIIL died she was secretly married to him.
The first business to which the queen and Mazarin
had to attend, was the carrying on of the war which had
been b^un under Louis XTTL It was the Thirty Tears'
War, which was now coming very near to an end. An army
had been lately sent against the Spaniards, under the com-
mand of a very young general, who was descended from a
warlike family, and who, Eichelieu had hoped, would dis-
tinguish himself as his forefathers had done.
This was the eldest son of the Prince of Cond^ who
XLiii.] LOUIS XIV. 331
was only twenty-two years old, and who was sent with an
anny and two of the best French generals to help him by
their advice and experience, into the north part of France,
where he found a large Spanish army attacking a French
town called Eocrpy, pleasing themselves with the thought
that now Bichelieu and the French king were dead, they
had nothing to fear. Gond6 and his advisers heard that a
fresh body of men were on their way to join with those
who were already there, so that their numbers would in-
crease even the next day, and they settled at once to begin
the battle. They marched upon the Spaniards, and after a
long struggle the French were successful, the Spaniards
were completely defeated, and Eocroy was saved.
The French people were so much delighted at this victory
that it made them satisfied and pleased with their rulers,
Queen Amie and Mazarin, who at this time became first
minister. The young prince who had gained the battle
also became a great favourite with the people, and he grew
up, as they expected, to be a brilliant soldier, though a few
years later, when his father died, and he had become
Prince of Cond6, he gave a great deal of trouble in the
country by his ambition and Ins restless, warlike spirit.
After the battle of Eocroy there were five more years
of war with the Spaniards, and several other great vic-
tories were won by Cond^, and by another young general,
the Count of Turenne, who was as calm and prudent
as Cond^ was briUiant and rash, and who knew more
about the rules of war than almost any general of the
time; besides being femed for his honesty, and virtues of
all kinds. At last, after many meetings between the
ministers of the different nations, a peace was arranged
332 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
and signed, called the Peace of Westphalia, which put an
end to the Thirty Years' War in the year 1648.
It did not stop all the fighting that had been going on,
for the war between France and Spain still continued ; but
the Emperor made peace with every one, and the Spaniards
made a treaty with the Dutch, ending the war that had
been going on between them since the time of Philip II.
By this peace the French gained the province of
Alsace, on the eastern side of France, and not only did
they grow stronger, but the Emperor, their enemy, grew
weaker, for the German princes succeeded in freeing them-
selves from his great power, and in maJdng him promise
to ask their advice henceforward about many matters
which he had before settled for himself, so that his power
was much lessened, and Loms XIV. had one strong enemy
the less to fear. The French having been successful in
several great battles, were more feared and respected in
Europe than they had been before the war.
At exactly the same time as the signing of the Peace
of Westphalia there began a civil war in France, which
lasted for five years. Towards the end of the time it was
c^«i »a fo, \^ .W ».»■«, .ad »«etoe. ata»t
as a joke ; but it caused the death of many Frenchmen,
and almost every one who took part in it disgraced him-
seK more or less. It was called the war of the Fronde, or
the sling, because the people fighting in it on one side were
compared by their enemies to boys playing in the streets
with slings and stones, who run away as soon as a watch-
man appears, and begin their play again when his back is
turned. This absurd name pleased the people to whom it
was given, and the war took its name from them.
XLiii.] LOUIS XIV. 333
These wars of the Fronde are very difficult to under-
stand, for the sides were constantly changing, and the
questions which were* being disputed were changing too.
The first war began between the Government, that is the
Queen-Begent, with her minister. Cardinal Mazarin, and
the Parliament. The Government wanted to set up certain
taxes, which the Parliament said Were not lawful ; then the
queen had one of the chief men of the Parliament arrested
and put in prison, which made all his friends extremely
angry. The people rose all through Paris, and put up bar-
ricades in the streets, as they had done in the time of the
Duke of Guise. They refused to take down the barricades,
till Broussel, the counsellor who had been arrested, was set
free again. The queen agreed at last, very unwillingly ;
she let him go, but she prepared troops to be revenged
upon the Parliament. She soon after escaped out of Paris,
taking the little king with her.
After this the Parliament tried to make a peace with
her; but she refdsed to promise what they wished, and
both sides began to look for new allies to carry on the
war. The Prince of Condd came to the help of the queen,
and several great nobles who hated Mazarin were per-
suaded to take the side of the Parliament. These men had
no real interest in the questions which the war was to
settle. They made a joke of the war; they appeared in
their gay clothes with plumes flying in their hats, with
their sisters and wives by their sides. There were feasting
and singing always going on at the headquarters of the
army, the Hotel de Yille, but very little business was done
there. As soon as these gay soldiers were attacked by
Cond^, they gave way at once ; and a peace was made the
334 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
year after the first disturbance had begun. No one was
satisfied by the peace : the Parliament, because no pro-
mises had been made to them about many of the questions
which they considered of great importance, and their
friends, the nobles and great lords, because they had not
received any of the places and honours for which they had
asked, and which were what they had really been fighting
for.
This war was called the old Fronde, and very soon
after its end a second war, the new Fronde, began. In
this struggle the Parliament took no part. The nobles
fought against the court, and this time the Prince of Conde
was on their side. He offended the queen so much that
she had him arrested and put into prison. But he was
soon after set free, and he, the Count of Turenne, and
many of the other great nobles, made a treaty with
the Spaniards, the enemies of France, who were to attack
it from the north side, where they were settled in the
Netherlands. When the court was in this great danger the
Count of Turenne was persuaded to come back to the side
of the queen, and he led the royal army against the
Frondeurs, with Cond^ for their general A great battle
was fought outside Paris, and Cond^ was near being both
defeated and killed. But his friends inside the town came
to his help, and the people of Paris, when he was once
inside the walls, took his side warmly. After a time the
Frondeurs turned against Cond^ again ; he left France for
a time, and his enemy Mazarin also went away, thinking
that peace would perhaps be made more easily without
him. After this the Fronde soon came to an end. Its
chief leaders were sent into exile ; Cond^ was condemned
XLlii.] LOUIS XIV. 335
to death, which, as he was not in France, did him no harm ;
the king and his court came back to Paris ; and, after a
time, Mazarin came back as well, and was received as a
friend by the people who before had hated him so much.
Before the end of the Fronde the young king had
been declared to be of age, and able to govern for himself^
being thirteen years old. His mother still had as much
real power as when she was regent, and the king did not
interfere in public matters for some time to come. The
war of the Fronde had done nothing to make the royal
power less than it had been in France. Under Henry IV.
and under Eichelieu the French kings had been continually
growing more and more powerful Eichelieu had made it
a great object to subdue all the nobles who were strong
enough to be dangerous enemies to the Crown ; he had suc-
ceeded so well that Louis XIV. had no trouble with any
of them, except perhaps the Prince of Cond^ all through
his reign. He never held any States-Generals, and we have
seen how little the Parliament was able to do to prevent
the court from having everything their own way. In this
reign France had a very strong army, and the successful
wars of Louis against the most powerful countries in
Europe gave him much strength and fame at home.
Few people had yet found out that Louis XIV. was
likely to be a remarkable man. He was a solemn silent
boy, and was thought duU and stupid, except by those who
knew him best. Mazarin took care that he should be
taught as little as possible. He wished the king to take
no interest in the affairs of the country, that he might keep
them in his own hands. StiU he knew something of the
character of Louis. He said of him once, " He will set off
336 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
late, but will go farther than others ; " and another time,
that ''he had stuff in him to make four kings and an
honest man," While the Fronde was going on through
his childhood, Louis was brought up to look upon the
Parliament as his chief enemy. When he heard of a
victory won by the French army, he cried out, " How
vexed the Parliament will be ! " and one of the first acts
of which we hear after his coming of age is his going
into the Chamber where the ParUament were discussing
whether or not some new taxes for which he wished
should be imposed, and the commands which he had given
about them obeyed. The king, who had been at Yincennes
hunting, heard of what they were doing, came to the Par-
liament in his hunting-dress and his great boots, with all
his lords about him dressed in the same way, and made
the members a short speech, commanding them to obey
his edicts instantly, and to assemble no more. This was
an example of the way in which he was prepared to treat
any one who seemed likely to resist his power.
'The ™ ^ Spain L. o„ for ill y»„ .««
this, but at last a peace was made, by which it was settled
that Louis should marry the daughter of the King of
Spain, the princess Maria Theresa. There was some chance
that this princess or her children might some day come to
rule in Spain, for her father was old and ill, and had only
one delicate little son. The King of Spain made Maria
Theresa give up her right to the crown for herself before
she married, but he could not prevent her children from
succeeding her brother if he had none of his own. The
only difficulty was that Louis himself loved another lady,
but he was persuaded by his mother and Mazarin to give
1
i
1
I >»
XLiii.] LOUIS ^XIV. 337
her up. This treaty of the Pyrenees was the secon4 in
the reign of Louis XIV, Very soon after it was ended
Cardinal Mazarin died. He was not so great a man as
EicheUeu, but he was more successful, and many of Riche-
lieu's wise plans first showed their result under him. He
had managed the affairs of the country weU in all that had
to do with foreign matters, though he had paid little atten-
tion to what went on at home.
Before he died he gave Louis much advice about carry-
ing on the Government, in particular, telling him never to
trust to a minister. The young king had probably already
settled this. After Mazarin's death he called together his
ministers, his chancellor,. and the other chief men in the
Government. He told them that he would henceforward
have no first minister, that they must come to him to
receive orders, and do nothing without his leave. They
were so much surprised that at first they did not believe
he could be in earnest, and thought that after a short trial
he would find the work too hard for him, and give it up.
But, on the contrary, he continued through the whole of
his life to do the governing of the country entirely by
himself, and his ministers, as time went on, had continually
less and less power left to them, for he liked' best the men
who behaved most humbly, and most fully owned him as
their master.
One of the first things that happened after Louis began
to reign in this way was the disgrace of one of his minis-
ters, whose duty it was to manage the money of the Govern-
ment, and who had been thinking more of his own good
while he did it than of that of the country. The name of
this man was Fouquet ; he used to make up false accounts,
z
f V
338 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
■ ^^^- * ■ I --— ■■-■■■ ■■II ■■ ■■■■■■ — ■ — ■■ ■ ■■■ ■ -- ■.-■^■■i ■ - — ■■ — ■ ■
sajring that he had received less money and spent more
than was really the case, and then kept for himself the
money which he pretended not to have received. Some
one pointed this out to the king, who naturally resolved
that Fouquet should soon be removed from his place. He
had many Mends, for he was gay, brilliant, and clever,
and many men of that time, if they knew of his dishonesty,
would not have thought much the worse of him for it.
The king said nothing of his purpose of punishing Fouquet,
or even of having found out his crimes. Fouquet gave a
magnificent party at his country house, to which he invited
Louis. He had spent on his country house some of the
enormous riches which he had gathered together. The
estate had cost more than three hundred thousand pounds.
It had been adorned with buildings, canals, fountains,
gardens, and every kind of ornament. The house had its
walls and ceilings painted by one of the greatest French
artists of the time, and Fouquet had sent to Italy to buy
three shiploads of statues to ornament the castle and the
gardens. He received the king with the greatest splendour
possible, and at each fresh sign of his riches and grandeur
Louis secretly became more angry with him, and more
determined to ruin a man who seemed likely to make
himself so great a person in the kingdom
A few weeks after the entertainment Fouquet was
arrested and tried for his life, for there were found in his
papers all the arrangements for a plot against the king,
orders for making cannon balls, oaths to Fouquet which
the captains were to take, and other such writings.
Fouquet's life was spared ; but he was shut up in prison
for the rest of his life, which lasted nineteen years, and
"5^»^w"T^
XLiii.] LOUIS XIV. 339
■ ■
was never even allowed to see his friends till a few-
months before his death.
After this Louis began to be feared by his subjects, and
his power was firmly established over them. There are
still more than fifty years of his reign to come, which must
be left for another chapter.
340
LOUIS XIV.
[CH.
CHAPTER XLIV.
Louis XIV. — i^ixynivnmS).
1643-1715.
Many great men, as I have said, lived in the reign ,of
Louis, who is himself sometimes called the Great, and one
of the chief of these was beginning to be known at the
time to which I have now come in this history. He was
the writer of the best and most amusing French plays that
have ever been written, and his name was Jean Moli^re.
The king, who was fond of books of all kinds, and also had
a great love for the theatre, protected and helped Moli^re,
who often had quarrels with the great lords and courtiers
to be found in the palace of Louis. Moli^re used to bring
them all into his plays and make fun of them, or point out
whicli wa. loth ua»»iiig and »3eM to tho people of Fiuice,
and was done so cleverly, that it is nearly as much pleasure
to read his plays now as it was when they were written.
At the same time lived Eacine, who wrote plays of a
different kind, usually very sad, and always graceful and
touching, and written in beautiful language ; and La Fon-
taine, who wrote fables about birds and beasts and all
kinds of animals, which most people have read who know
XLiv.] LOUIS XIV, 341
'■ 1^— ■■■■ I I ■■■■■■- -——-■■■-■ .11 ■ ■ ■ ■■■! ■■ ■— I — ■ I ■
any French at all ; and Bossuet, who was a bishop,* and
used to preach some of the most eloquent sermons that
ever were heard, and in particular, used to make what were
then called funeral orations over any famous person who
died, which were long speeches giving an account of their
lives, of what they had done, and what sort of people they
had been. At the same time, too, lived Madame de
S^vign^ who used to write such charming and amusing
letters to her daughter, that volumes fall of them have
been printed, and are read with great pleasure and interest
now ; and many other men and women, too many to men-
tion, who wrote different kinds of prose or poetry, or both.
There were also great painters, who painted the insides
of houses and churches, besides making beautiful pictures,
and architects who built the houses and churches, and also
palaces and halls and arches, and engineers who made roads
and canals, and many people, both men and women, who
set up schools of different kinds and taught children there.
There has never been a reign in which more famous
people have lived ; and the king encouraged them all, and
treated them very kindly, in return for which they all
looked up to him as the greatest man living, and did in
his honour whatever, they could do best, so that he became
even more famous through them than he would have been
by his own actions.
After the death of Mazarin, Louis had one minister
who served him for many years well and faithfully, and
pleased him by being humble and obedient, and not taking
too much upon himself. His name was Colbert, and he
did many things which were of great importance for France.
For one thing, he managed to build a navy, that is, a set of
342 LOUIS XIV, [CH.
ships of war. France had never had a navy before, but it
was very useful in the wars that were soon to come. I
have not space to tell of all the improvements that Colbert
made, and all the others that he tried to make. He always
had great difficulty in making Louis give him the money
he wanted for carrying on the business of the country, for
the king spent it very fast in his various great wars, or
when he happened to be at peace, in buildings and feasts,
and giving it to his friends, which he did foolishly and
thoughtlessly, without considering, in spite of all that
Colbert could say, the misery of some of his poor subjects
who had to pay the taxes from which he gained his wealth.
Not very long after Fouquet's disgrace, there was a
war between the French and the Spaniards about some of
the countries belonging to the Spanish princess whom Louis
had married. Her father the King of Spain died, and her
little brother became king. Louis said that certain parts
of the Spanish kingdom ought now to belong to her, and
he had m his mind secret hopes that he or his sons might
some day be kings over Spain itself, for the young king
was so weak and delicate that it did not seem as if he
were likely to marry and have any cMldren, and it was
supposed that he might die at any time. He did, however,
live for more than thirty years, though the ideas that he
would have no child and that a French prince would suc-
ceed him on the throne both came true. The Spaniards
refused to give up to the French queen the provinces which
Louis said ought to be hers. Indeed, no one but the king
thought that ^he had any right to them at all. Louis
marched into the part of the Netherlands which belonged
to Spain, and took some towns there. He had very easy
XLiv.] LOUIS XIV, 343
. 1 — . , ,
work, for the Spaniards hardly resisted him, so the war did
not last long. Peace was made next year, and Louis kept
most of the places he had won in the Netherlands.
At about this time he had a new minister named Lou-
vois, who had a great deal of influence over the king, and
often used it to persuade him to go to war with some of
his neighbours. Louis was fond of war ; he liked to ap-
pear grand and strong to every one in Europe, and his
generals usually won victories and triumphs for him when-
ever a war gave them the opportunity. Louis had schemes
of making himself the greatest king that had ever been
known ; more than king, he wished to be emperor as well,
and have the greater part of Europe under his rule. The
English king of that time, Charles IL, was his friend.
Charles was secretly a Eoman Catholic, and so was in-
clined to like the French king, and Louis gave him money
and advice and help against his own subjects, and made
him more a friend than ever. But there was one man in
Europe who was growing up to be a bitter enemy to Louis.
This was the young Prince of Orange, one of the chief men
at that time in Holland, the grandson of the great William
of Orange, who had been at the head of the Dutch in their
long struggle against the Spaniards. The Dutch were Pro-
testants, and their country being small and not very strong,
they were in great danger from the French, and were always
more or less expecting to be attacked by them. They
now began to consult with some of the Protestant countries
of Europe as to how they might make a league against
France. Louis made a treaty with the English, who pro-
mised to help him, and then dedared war against the Dutch.
This war lasted for six years, and is a very remarkable
344 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
one. Louis gained great glory by it, and a good deal of
land ; yet, on the whole, the Dutch showed that they were
able to resist him, and he then first found out what a dan-
gerous enemy William of Orange might come to be. Louis
marched into HoUand throu£;h Germany and crossed the
Hd^ wMoh was tt.o.ght Z^ wondLl ..d glorious
event, though there was not really much difficulty about
it ; but many poems have been written in its honour, and
the people of Paris came to have an idea that a great feat
had been performed; some of them thought that the whole
army swam over the river with their enemies firing at them
as they went.
The Dutch seeing Louis in their country, and not being
able to resist him, were much alarmed. It was proposed, as
the only way of stopping the French army, that the whole
coimtry round Amsterdam, the capital of Holland, should be
flooded, so that it would be impossible for an army to pass.
Holland is so low that the sea would naturally flow over the
north part of it if the water were not kept out by great walls
or banks called dykes, built on purpose by the Dutch. In
these dykes are gates called sluices, and when the sluices are
opened the water comes rushing through them and covers
the country inside. Of course the sluices are usually kept
carefully shut, but it was now proposed to open them.
There was a little town near Amsterdam where the chief
sluices were. One of the French generals was told to take
four thousand men and march towards this town. Instead
of four thousand he took rather less than two thousand,
being short of food. When he got near the town he stopped,
and sent on a body of a hundred and fifty soldiers towards
Amsterdam. Even these did not get all the way; they
'r^
XLiv.] LOUIS XIV, 345
stopped in a town which they took on their road, and only-
four of them went on to Muyden, where the sluices were.
The people, thinking that all the army was behind them,
fled away, and these four soldiers had Muyden in their
power. However, the Dutch soon found out that no one
else was at hand ; they came back to Muyden, made the
soldiers tipsy, and sent them out of the town, and from
that time guarded it carefully. After this the sluices were
opened, and Amsterdam was soon an island in the middle
of a sea of water, underneath which were country houses,
gardens, fields, all given up by the Dutch for the sake of
resisting Louis. They had some idea, if he should still
prove too strong for them, of flooding the whole country,
and all going off in a body on board their ships, to find
themselves a new home in America ; but this did not prove
to be necessary. WiUiam of Orange found friends to help
him in Europe, and a league was made against the French
When winter came and Louis went back to France, his
subjects resolved to give him some name to show hJTn how
much they admired him for the success he had so far gained
against the Dutch. After some disputing they settled that
he should be called Louis le Grand, or the Great, and by
this name he is known in history. Most of the countries of
Europe, Protestant and Eoman Catholic alike, now joined
together against Louis, for they were all growing afraid of
his great power. Germany, Spain, and Denmark came to
the help of Holland, and the war went on for year after
year. One great misfortune for the French was that their
great general, the Count of Turenne, was killed by a cannpn-
shot while he was fighting in Germany. All the best and
346 LOUIS XIV, [CH.
wisest people in France were grieved at his death. Peace
was made at last between all the different countries that
had been at war, but it was a peace that was not to last
long. Winiam knew that he and Louis XIV. must always
be deadly enemies, but for the time they ceased fighting.
This is called the peace of Nimeguen, from the name of
the Dutch town where it was signed.
When this war was over, Louis had a few years of
quiet. One of his chief friends at this time was a lady
caUed Madame de Maintenon. She had at one time been
governess to some of his children, and he gradually came
to admire and respect her so much that he asked her advice
about everything, and at last, after the queen's death, ended
by marrying her privately. She was never called queen,
or treated as one, but went on being considered as a private
person, though she reaUy was the wife of the king. In
many ways the advice she gave him was very good and
useful ; she made him attend to serious matters, and think
more about religion than he had ever done before ; but
she was partly the reason of his doing what is usually
considered as one of the worst actions of his life — at once
wrong and foolish — which happened between the war with
the Dutch and the next war ten years afterwards.
Since the time of Eichelieu the Huguenots in France
had been left tolerably quiet. The Edict of Nantes, which
Henry had made on purpose to protect them and make it
possible for them ta live comfortably in France, had been
more or less observed. They had churches of their own,
they held their services as often as they liked, and they
were able to hold places in the Government and offices of
different kinds. The Huguenots had for raany years past
xtiv.]
LOUIS XIV.
347
been very loyal ; they never rose up against the king or
gave any trouble of any kind in the country ; and they
were among the best of Louis's subjects, specially sober,
honest, and industrious. But Louis had always had a
great dislike to them. He looked upon them as enemies
to France, and the priests and Madame de Maintenon
encouraged him in these feelings, and told him it was his
duty to try to put a stop to heresy. He showed his dislike
more and more plainly ; he never appointed Huguenots to
offices or places ; money was collected on purpose to bribe
Huguenots to change their religion ; and at last Louvois,
his minister, invented a horrible plan of quartering soldiers
on, that is, sending them to live in the houses of, the Pro-
testants who refused to change their religion.
A body of soldiers would be sent to some village, and
five or six men to the cottage of each Huguenot family.
The peasants had to give them lodging, find them food, for
which they often did not pay, and bear the rude rough way
in which the soldiers treated them. The peasants who be-
came Boman Catholics had no soldiers sent to them, and so
great was the cruelty of these men, who were told to make
themselves as unpleasant as possible to their hosts, that
more people were persuaded to change, or pretend to
change their religion by this plan than by any other that had
been tried. Great lists of people who had changed were
sent week by week to the king, and at last his ministers and
Eoman Catholic friends succeeded in persuading him that
there really were scarcely any Protestants left in the country.
He now did what he had long wished to do; he revoked
or called back the Edict of Nantes. It ceased to be a law
in France, and all the help and protection it had given to
348 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
the Huguenots was gone. They were never to meet for
worship ; all the Protestant pastors or clergymen must leave
the country in a fortnight ; all children must be brought
up as Eoman Catholics, and, under pain of terrible punish-
ments, no Huguenot, who was not a pastor, was to escape out
of France. It was soon seen how great a mistake had been
made when it was said that there were not many Huguenots
left in France. In spite of the order that they should stay,
thousands of them left their homes, and, in spite of every
diflSculty and danger, they fled away from their native
country and escaped into England, or Holland, or Germany,
where they might carry on their own religion undisturbed.
They had terrible adventures ; the king's soldiers were
always on the watch to stop them, turn them back, carry
them off to prison and to cruel punishment. The ports
were watched aU round the coast, and it was almost im-
possible to find boats to carry them across the sea. Fami-
lies had to separate, so as to have a better chance of escap-
ing safely; husbands and wives, parents and chHdren,
brothers and sisters, often said good-bye for the last time
before they set oflf on theu* separate journeys, and never
saw each other again. One would escape safely, and
another be taken prisoner, or sometimes both would be
taken prisoners and sent to the gaJleys, or kept in prison
for many years, perhaps their lifetimes. Eoman Catholics
who helped the Protestants to escape were punished as if
they had been Protestants themselves, and many Soman
Catholics suffered in this way.
The galleys were great boats, on which were fixed
benches, where the unfortunate galley slaves spent the
whole of the day and night chained to their seats, and
i
\
XLiv.] LOUIS XIV. 349
rowing from place to place, with an officer watching to seei
that they never stopped their work, and to flog any one he
chose, as he walked up and down the deck, with a great
whip in his hand. Many Huguenots were condemned to
this for life, and died on the galleys. But the Protestants
ran the risk of all these horrors sooner than stay in a
country where they were forbidden to worship God as they
thought right, and where their children were taken from
them and brought up to believe a false religion. They
found fishing-boats and other small vessels in which they
crossed the sea, sometimes hidden underneath the cargo of
coal, or of whatever made the lading of the boat. They
were most kindly received in all the countries to which
they fled, and were very useful visitors, for they carried
their industrious habits and their skill in all kinds of work
to the countries that received them, where their hosts were
eager to learn what they had to teach. In London, they
set up places for making silk ; in Holland, they taught
the making of cloths and paper. Some of them settled in
Berlin, which was then a small and imimportant town, but
which soon became so rich by their industry and the
wealth which it brought, that it has now become one of
the principal cities of Europe, being the capital of Prussia
and of the German Empire. Thus other countries gained
as much as France lost by the folly and cruelty of Louis in
driving the best of his subjects from their homes.
The king had now reigned for forty years ; but as he
had thirty years stUl before him at the time when he re-
voked the Edict of Nantes, and as there stiU remains a
good deal to be said about him, I will finish his reign in
another chapter.
350
LOUIS XIV,
[CH.
• /
CHAPTEE XLV.
Louis XIV. — {conclvded).
1643-1715.
The cruelty of Louis to the Protestants had made him
enemies in all the countries of Europe. Many of his
neighbours had been afraid of his great power for some
time, and had been trying to make up a league to join to-
gether against him ; but now all the Protestants were so
angry with him, that some of those who had been inclined
to take his side went over to the League ; and Louis saw
that he was in great danger, and that war might begin
against him at any moment. His chief enemies were the
Emperor of Germany, several of the Grerman princes, and
William of Orange ; the English, for the present, were on
his side, as James II., a Eoman Catholic, was now reigning
over them, and was the friend of Louis. His enemies
called their league the League of Augsburg, from the name
of a German town, where it had been chiefly arranged be-
tween them ; and the war which began about three years
after the persecution of the Huguenots, is caUed the War
of the League of Augsburg. It lasted for nine years, and
Louis won several great battles, and took several large
towns, with great difficulty ; yet it was not on the whole
successful for him.
XLV.1 LOUIS XIV. 351
:^ i ' : __^
Very soon after it began there was a revolution in Eng-
land : the people drove away James IL, their Eoman
Catholic king, ancl invited William of Orange, his son-in-
law, to come and rule over them. He went, became King
of England, and had all the strength of the English to help
him in his war against Louis. At the same time, having
all the affairs of England to attend to, he could not spend
so much of his time in fighting the French as he otherwise
might have done. Every summer he went over to the
Continent to take part in the war ; his armies were made
up of Englishmen, Dutchmen, and a great number of
the French Huguenots who had been driven from their
country by Louis. Their great wish was to go back again
to France and be settled there as before, and they believed
that no one could bring them back but William. They
hoped that if they helped him to conquer his enemy Louis,
he would make Louis agree to their going back to France,
and living there undisturbed ; but this hope was never ful-
filled. The Huguenots who had joined the English army
spent their lives in England ; many of them married Eng-
lish people, and their children and grandchildren became
as much Englishmen as any of their neighbours.
Louis had a very strong army with which to resist the
other countries of Europe; he also had with him an
engineer named Vauban, who knew more about defending
and besieging towns than any other man of that time. He
used to build towers and walls round a town, and make it
so strong that it was almost impossible for any one else to
take it; or, on the other hand, he could arrange guns so
well, and make trenches and siege- works of different kinds
so skilfully, that very few towns could resist when he be-
352 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
sieged them. This man was of the greatest use to Louis
all through his wars; he could also make canals and
bridges ; and he wrote a very useful book on the state of
France.
While the war was going on Louis had tried to make
dififtculties for William by helping his enemy, James XL,
who had come for shelter to the French court when he was
turned off the throne of England. Louis gave him a fleet
and an army, and sent him to Ireland, where he fought the
battle of the Boyne against William III. and his Pro-
testant army, and was entirely beaten ; so he fled back to
France again. Louis then let him live at Versailles, a
palace which had been built in this reign just outside
Paris, and treated him with great kindness. William's
wife Mary died in the course of the war, and as it was sup-
posed that many of the English cared for William only
because he was her husband, Louis thought that now would
be a good time for James to try once again whether he
could find no friends in his old kingdom. A plot was
arranged in England, and James was sent off with some
ships, and a brave and sldlful captain to command them,
to cross the Channel, and land, if possible, in England.
But it was of no use ; the English fleet was watching, and
James had to come back to France once more. He stayed
there for the rest of his life.
In this war William and his friends hardly ever won a
victory. William himself gained only one in the whole
course of his life, and that was in Ireland, at the battle of
the Boyne, Year after year he went to the Netherlands,
or to Germany, or wherever the war was going on, fought
a great battle, or tried to take or defend a town, and was
XLV.] LOUIS XIV. 353
beaten. Yet, after nine years of fighting, Louis was willing
to agree to the tenns of peace which William proposed.
These terms were, that he should acknowledge William as
King of England, and give up to the English and Dutch
and Germans all the towns and country he had taken
from them during the war. A peace was made at Eyswick
in ^Holland, which was, on the whole, good for the allied of
the League of Augsburg, and bad for France and Louis ;
but it is said that the reason Louis agreed to it was that
he wanted to give all his thoughts and strength to the
question of who should be the next King of Spain, about
which he was very anxious. Before the peace was settled,
William IIL tried to persuade Louis to give leave to the
Huguenots who had been driven away from France to
come back to their own homes and settle there again, but
the French king would not hear of it.
There are so many wars and treaties of peace in this
reign, that I have made a little table of them at the end of
this chapter, for it is impossible that any one can remem-
ber them by merely reading their names once. By seeing
a list of them all together, one comes to imderstand what an
extraordinary reign this was, on account both of its length
and of the number of events which happened in it. We
have now come to the end of the seventeenth century.
The peace of Eyswick was signed three years before 1700 ;
all that comes after this happened in the last century, in
which people no older than our own grandfathers were bom.
During all this war of the League of Augsburg the
people of France had suffered terribly. Two or three men
in the country were bold enough to write books, in which
they gave an account of aU the misery they saw about
2 A
354 LOUIS XIV, [CH.
them. Louis XIV. had such complete power in France
that there were not many of his subjects who dared to tell
him the truth, and Ke never called together the States-
General, so that he did not even have the lists of com-
plaints which they would have drawn up, and which
might have given him some idea of the state of his sub-
jects. This is the way in which one of the great writers
of that time — ^F^n^lon, who was tutor to the king's grand-
son, and afterwards a bishop — describes France as it was
then : — " The whole of France is one great hospital, with
no food in it. The people who once loved you so well (his
book is a kind of letter addressed to Louis) are now losing
their trust in you, their friendship, and even their respect
for you. You are obliged either to leave their rebellions
unpunished, or to massacre people whom you have driven
to despair, and who are dying every day of iUnesses brought
on by famine. The land is almost uncultivated ; the cities
and the country have lost their inhabitants, commerce has
come to an end, and trade brings in no riches." The letter
goes on to say that Louis ought to make peace, even on
bad terms, for that the war he was carrying on was an
unjusf one, in which he was thinking only of his own
glory, and tljat his first duty was to attend to his people's
happiness.
It is not certain that the king ever saw this letter, but
it gives us some idea of what the state of the country
must have been; and other people wrote books, saying
the same sort of thing, which were published and read by
every one, though they do not seem to have had any special
effect on Louis.
In the year 1700 the King of Spain, Charles II., died,
XLV.] LOUIS XIV. 355
after having been for thirty-two years so weak and delicate
that it Had been supposed every year that he must die
before the end of it. He had been married three times,
but had never had any children, so that it was not certain
who would be king after him. In Spain the king could
make a will if he had no child, leaving the Crown to any-
one-he chose, so that there was great interest to know
what Charles wonld settle. He had had no brothers, but
two sisters, and each of his sisters had a grandson. One
of these listers had been the wife of Louis XIV., so her
grandson was his grandson as well, and what Louis natur-
ally wished was that this young man, whose name was
Philip, should be King of Spain, in which case Louis him-
self would really govern both kingdoms, for Philip was
young, and would have done as his grandfather desired
him. But Charles 11. liked the grandson of his other
sister better than Philip, and always said he should leave
the kingdom to him. This was a child of seven years old,
a little prince of Bavaria, called Joseph Ferdinand. There
was one other person who thought he had a right to be king,
and this was Charles, son of the Emperor of Germany, who
was not so near a relation as either of the others, but who
had the wife of Charles II. for his friend.
The poor King of Spain spent the last year or two of
his Ufe in the greatest distress, trying in vain to make up
his mijid which of all these people should succeed him.
His wife wished for Charles, and he wished for Joseph
Ferdinand, and some of his ministers wished for Philip, the
grandson of Louis ; and the other countries of Europe, in
particular England, interfered, and began making treaties
with each other for dividing the kingdom, which he thought
/
366 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
worse than anything. At last little Joseph Ferdinand died
suddenly, and the question was now only between the
French prince, the grandson of Louis, and tiie German
prince, the son of the Emperor. Louis sent an ambassador
to Spain, who lived at Madrid, and did everything he could
to please the king and make friends with the great nobles
and £he people. His wife came to live there too, and was
agreat help to him, for she was so charming that every one
liked to come to his house, and he was then able to say to
them all that he wished. Li the end he was successful.
Charles II. made a will leaving all his possessions to Philip,
and if he did not accept them, to Charles, the Emperor^s
son. Directly after this he died ; the will was read, and
Philip was invited to come to Spain, and settle himself
there as king.
Louis had now gained what he had been wishing for so
long, but it brought him great trouble as well as pleasure.
He had just made an arrangement with William of Eng-
land, by which the Spanish kingdom was to be divided
between England, France, and Germany, and he knew the
English would be angry at his taking it all for himseK.
However, after some little thought, he decided to accept
the will, and sent his grandson Philip to Spain, telling him
to be a good Spaniard, without forgetting that he was a
Frenchman, and hoping that France and Spain would now
be like one country. " There are no more Pyrenees," he
said to Philip, meaning that the natural division between
the two countries had come to an end.
After this Louis, in several small ways, offended every
one „hoW.Wy been n^ang^b^M. .U„™« 1^
grandson to accept this great inheritance, and at last his
XLV.] LOUIS XIV. 367
chief enemies made a league against him and began a war.
These enemies were the English, the Dutch, and the Em-
peror. Their league was called the Grand Alliance, and
the war, the War of the Spanish Succession ; it lasted for
twelve .years. Peace was made only two years before the
death of Louis. Soon after the war had begun William
III. of England died, and was succeeded by Anne — "the
good Queen Anne" — his sister-in-law, whose general, the
Duke of Marlborough, was almost as good a soldier as
William, though a far less great man, and carried on the
war very successfully for England.
Louis had bad generals ; he usually appointed men who
were Mends of his own, or of Madame de Maintenon's,
whether they were good soldiers or not. This was one of
the bad results of doing everything for himself, and trusting
so little to any minister. The Emperor's son Charles, who
now called himself Charles III. of Spain, attacked Philip
v., King of Spain, and at one time drove him from the
throne and set himself up there instead. But the Spanish
people, in the course of this war, came to care strongly
about Philip, and fought for him faithfully, so that at last
Charles was driven out of the country ; and when his father
and his elder brother died, he became Emperor of Germany,
and caied no mote about Spain, so Philip and his descend-
ants ruled there peacefully as Louis had wished.
But with LoJL himsei, as the war went on, things did
not go so well. He had two specially dangerous enemies,
the Duke of Marlborough in England, and the Prince
Eugene in Germany. These two were both great soldiers,
and they planned the war so skilfully that their armies
were always coming up to help one another and to destroy
358 LOUIS XIV, [CH.
the FrenciL A great battle was fought at Blenheim^ near
the river Danube, where the French were entirely beaten,
and lost not only many men, but all their power and force
in Germany. This was the worst misfortune that had then
ever happened to Louis.
The war went on, and two years later Marlborough won
another great victory at Eamillies. This was in the Nether-
lands, and therefore much nearer to France and Paris thaii
Blenheim had been. The king and his people were fright-
ened, and Louis tried to make peace with England and
Holland separately. However, the war still went on ; the
English took the Bock of Gibraltar from the Spaniards, and
have kept it as their own till this day. They had constant
success, though they lost many soldiers in every battle, and
there was a party in England which was very anxious that
the war should stop as soon as might be. Seven years after
the war began there came a dreadful winter in France ; tiU
January the weather was so warm that leaves came out,
and flowers and blossom began to grow, then there came a
sudden .sharp frost, and everything was killed. The frost
lasted for some time, and the people, who were in great
poverty and wretchedness to begin with, suffered terribly ;
their houses were falling down, their clothes were thin and
bad, and when they could buy no food they fell ill and
died in great numbers. Wolves came down from the forests
and mountains and attacked the people in the plains.
The next summer Marlborough gained a third great
victory, as famous as those of Blenheim ancl Eamillies ; it
was at Malplaquet, in Belgium. Here more men were
killed on both sides than in any former battle. The English,
though they were victorious, had lost more men than the
XLV.] LOUIS XIV. 369
French, and people in England became more and more
anxious that the war should come to an end* The French,
who had retreated from the battle in good order, were in
rather bet^ter spirits, though they had been beaten, than
they had been before, and were becoming less afraid of the
" fierce Malbrook," as he was called in France. After tjiis
there was no other serious battle, and four years afterwards
peace was* signed at Utrecht. Philip was to remain King
of Spain, and Louis solemnly promised that the countrie;3
of France and Spain should never be ruled by the same
king. Louis recognised Anne as Queen of England, and
promised to send away from France the son of James II.,
called the Pretender, who wished to make himseK King of
England as James III. There were altogether ten treaties
made at Utrecht, for France made peace separately with all
the nations which had joined the Grand Alliance, and Spain
and Portugal did the same. Thus, at last, there was peace
through aU. Europe.
A year before the end of the war a great trouble came
upon Louis XIV. His eldest son, the Dauphin, had lived
to be about fifty without making himseK remarkable in any
kind of way. The king had taken great pains with his
education, and had him brought up by one of the greatest
writers, and the most famous Churchman of the time —
Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux — who had written books entirely
for him, and done everything possible to make him a perfect
king, in spite of all which he grew up with hardly any
character, no virtues, no particular vices ; and hardly any-
thing is known of him till, when he was fifty years old, he
suddenly died of smallpox. He left a son of about twenty-
five, who had been brought up with as much care as his
• •"
360 LOUIS XIV. [CH.
father, and with much better success. His tutor had been
F6nelon, the Archbishop of Cambrai, who is sometimes
called the Swan of Cambrai, &om his gentleness and inno-
cence ; while Bossuet is called the Eagle of Meaux, from his
strength and activity, and king-like qualities. F^n^lon's
pupil, the Duke of Burgundy, had had many faults while
he was quite young, but had been cured of them by his
master, and was at once so good and so clever that the people
were looking forward to a good king in him. Now that his
father, the Dauphin, was dead, he was next heir to the
throne, and Louis felt that he should leave a worthy suc-
cessor behind him.
The Duke of Burgundy had a wife who was very gay
and charming, made the court amusing and cheerful to
every one, and was specially loved by the old king. Sud-
denly she fell ill of a violent feter, and died after a few
days' iUness. The next morning her husband, the duke,
was seized with the same illness ; a few days after he also
died, leaving two children, both boys, one five and the other
two years old. Both children caught the fever from their
parents ; the elder died, the younger was saved with great
difficulty, and Uved to succeed his great-grandfather as
Louis XV.
The poor old king was deeply grieved by these misfor-
tunes, which happened to him one after another. He also
knew that his people were in great distress ; he found it
vain to try and raise any more money from them. There
were riots for bread in several cities. The court became
more and more gloomy; even Madame de Maintenon grew
tired of the king, who was still devoted to her. He had
now been on the throne for seventy-two years, and was
dying of old age. He was calm and grand and king-like, as
XLV.] LOUIS XIV. 361
he had always been, to the very end of his life. On his death-
bed he had his little great-grandson Louis XV., who was
then five years old, brought to him, and said good-bye
io the child in words which were afterwards painted on
the head of his bed, that they might be in his sight night
and morning. " You are soon to be king of a great coun-
try. What I commend most earnestly to you is never to
forget the obligations you owe to God. Eemember that
you owe all you are to Him. Try to keep peace with your
neighbours ; I have been too fond of war, do not imitate
me in that, nor in my too great expenditure." Louis XIV.
died, l^ft alone by his friends, even by Madame de Main-
tenon, and his people were glad to hear of his death. They
had suffered so much in the last years of his reign, that
they hoped for something better under a new Government,
whatever it might be. They could not foresee how bad a
king was to succeed their Great Monarch, as Louis was
called during his lifetime and since. Louis was one of the
most remarkable kings in French history ; and though no
one would say that he was altogether a good man, there
are many reasons for thinking him a great one.
The Wars and Treaties in the Reign op Louis XIV.
Thirty Years' War. Ended by the Peace of Westphalia, 1648.
(Going on when he began to leign.)
War with Spain. Ended by the Peace of the Pyrenees, 1658.
(By which it was settled that Louis should marry Maria Theresa.)
War with Spain (about Maria Theresa's rights). Ended by the
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1668.
War with Holland (lasted six years). Ended by the Peace of
Nimeguen, 1678.
War of the League of Augsburg. Ended by the Peace of
Ryswick, 1697.
War of the Spanish Succession. Ended by the Peace of Utrecht,
1713.
362 LOUIS XV, [CH.
CHAPTEE XLVI.
Louis XV. (1715-1774).
There have been very few worse kings than Louis XV. of
France. He was a bad weak man, with none of the virtues
of his father, or the great quaUties of Louis XIV. He was
not so fortunate as to have any great minister to help him
in his reign, as Eichelieu helped Louis XIIL, and he lived
at a time when there were great disturbances and troubles
in France and in other countries, so that it was of special
importance to each country that its king should be a wise
and prudent man.
When Louis XFV. died the little Louis was, as I said,
only five years old, and his great-grandfather had made
arrangements that the country should be governed, not by
any one regent but by a body of men, who were to be what
* was called a Council of Kegency. At the head of this
council was a man who had been the nephew of the last
king, and was the great-uncle of the present one, and the
\ nearest relation of the yoimg king. His name was the
\ Duke of Orleans. This man had expected to be Eegent with-
out any coimcil to prevent him from doing what he wished,
and when he had gone to see Louis XIV. on his deathbed,
the poor old king had been afraid to tell him what had
been arranged by the will, and so had said, " I have left
■- ■ < ■ «■
XLVi.] LOUIS XV. 363
affairs in such a way as will quite satisfy you." After this
the Duke of Orleans was made very angry by finding out
that he was not to be regent, and that another man had
even been chosen to be guardian of the little king.
The Parliament held a meeting to hear the will read,
and then the duke made a speech, saying that he was the
fit person to be regent, and that the king had almost pro-
mised that he should be, and he succeeded so well in bring-
ing all his hearers round to his side, that it was resolved
to pay no attention to the will, but to make the Duke of
Orleans regent, and let him choose the men who were to
form the council and help him by their advice. At that
time it was supposed that Louis would never live to grow
up, and the Duke of Orleans was full of hopes of getting
the crown for himself whenever the little king should die.
The regent and his advisers began their government by
making everything as unlike as possible to what it had
been in the reign of the last king. As he had done every-
thing for himself, and had not even had chief ministers for
the different parts of the Government, the regent resolved
that each different part should be managed not by one man,
but by a coimcil of several men, who were to discuss to-
gether and settle whg-t was to be done. This plan was
tried for about three years, and did not answer well. It
was found that matters were settled less, not more, quickly
when there were several men to talk over what was to be
done, instead of one, who would only have had to make up
his own mind. The coimcils were done away with, and
ministers chosen instead.
Philip of Orleans, the regent, had some things about
him that were good and pleasant. He had a great taste
364 LOUIS XV, [CH.
for learning of all kinds ; he was fond of music, and had
written an opera ; he spoke well, and was a good soldier ;
besides this, he had kind pleasant manners and was never
crueL But he was idle, and so fond of pleasure that his
good qualities were of very little use to him, for he spent
his time in feasting and amusing himself in bad ways, when
he should have been attending to the government of the
country.
He had a favourite minister, named Dubois, whom he
allowed to manage the affairs of France very much in his
own way, and who was a bad dishonest man, but anxious
for the safety of the country, and clever in finding out
plans for defending it against the attacks of the other
nations who were its enemies. One of his great difl&culties,
as is always the case with the rulers of any great nation,
was how to find enough money for carrying on the Govern-
ment without putting on any fresh taxes, to which it was
known the people would object. There was at this time
a Scotchman in France, called John Law, who was full
of a plan he had invented for making the Government of
France rich, without, as he hoped, making anybody else the
poorer. The way in which he meant to do this is rather
difficult to understand, but his chief idea was to have
paper money instead of the usual gold and silver coin.
' Before this, paper money had been used sometimes by
\ private people who had business together. People had
\ begun to understand that money is useful to us only
because we can change it away for other things we want.
Therefore, anything which people agree to take in exchange
for what they have to sell, will serve for money just as
well as gold and silver. Law thought it would be a good
kM«i
XLVi.] LOUIS XV, 365
plan to have money made of something so common that the
Government could always make as much as was wanted,
and every one have plenty. He proposed that it should be
made of paper like our bank-notes — sheets of paper, with
the sum of money they were worth stamped upon them.
This paper money was to be used as well as gold and silver,
and orders were to be given that it should be considered as
money all through the country. There was to be a bank,
or place where money could be kept, at which the sheets
of paper, which were called notes, could always be changed
for money when the people to whom they belonged
wished it. -
But Law had forgotten one thing, which made his plan
fail. Nobody cares to have anything that is not useful in
itself, if it is very common indeed, and very easily to be
had. If every one has great quantities of paper money
already, it will be of so little value to them, that they will
not consider a small quantity of it worth having, and they
will ask for a great deal of it in exchange for their goods,
so that the people who buy wiU be no richer than before ;
they will ha.ve more money than usual to begin with, but
they will also have to spend more than usuaL
This happened in France when Law's plan was tried
there. The paper money became less and less valuable,
and at last people began to dislike having it at all, and to
ask for gold instead. They all took their notes to the
bank to be changed for gold and silver ; and then found
that there was not enough gold and silver for them to
receive what was owing to them. Hundreds of people
were ruined in this way. Law had other plans besides
that of the notes, and they aU seemed to fail at the
^
366 LOUIS XV, [CH.
same time. The French, who had beKeved in him, had all
joined in his plans, taken his paper money, helped him in
all he imdertook, and hoped to make their fortunes ; but
many of them, instead of this, were utterly ruined, and
found they had lost all their good money, and had, instead,
only notes that were of no use to them. Law himself, who
seems to have been an honest man, and to have really
thought that what he did was for the good of the country,
was ruined also. He had bought land in France with the
first money he had gained ; he left it and wandered away
poor, after all his grand hopes, to the neighbouring coun-
tries, where he lived tUl his death, ten years after-
wards.
While inside France every one was taken up with
thinking about Law and his plans, which turned out so
ill for all who believed in them, the affairs of the French
abroad were going on very well, managed by Dubois, the
regent's favourite Minister. The chief enemy of France
was Spain. The hope of Louis XIV., that after his
grandson became King of Spain, the two nations would
always be friends to one another, had not come to pass.
The very fact of the kings of the two coimtries being
relations made a reason for their quarrelling, for the Span-
ish king hoped to succeed Louis XV. on ttie throne if he
died young, which every one fully expected him to do.
The French, the English, and the Dutch, aU joined to make
an aUiance against Spain, and as there were three of them,
they called it The Triple Alliance. After a time they per-
suaded the Emperor of Germany to join it. And then, as
there were four nations allied together, they called it the
Quadruple Alliance.
XLVi.] LOUIS XV. 367
After all these preparations there was not much fight-
mg. The Spaniards were not strong enough to resist
England, France, Germany, and Holland, all at the same
time, and peace was very soon made by a treaty called the
Treaty of London, in the year 1720. The Spanish king-
sent away the minister who had persuaded him to wish
for the French crown, and Spain gave up some places
about which there had been a disptttejxtq^ the Emperor and
to France. After all, Louis XV. did not die for many years
after this, and when he did, he left a grandson to succeed
him, so there was no need for the King of Spain and the
Eegent to quarrel about his possessions.
What Dubois wished at this time, more than anything
else, was to be made cardinal. It was the greatest honour,
next to being Pope, that a Eoman Catholic priest could
have, and the Pope was always chosen from among the
cardinals. Perhaps Dubois may have had hopes in his
mind of even coming to be Pope some day ; and many of
the great French ministers had been cardinals, in particular,
Eichelieu and Mazarin, and Dubois, who thought himself
nearly as great a man as they were, was anxious for the
same honour.
There was hardly any king or important person in
Europe to whom he did not write letters and send presents,
begging them to ask the Pope to listen to his wish. In
spite of all this the Pope who was then reigning refused
the request, but when he died, Dubois managed that the
new Pope should be one of his own friends; and one of the
new Pope's first actions was to send a cardinal's hat, which
was the way of showing that a man was made cardinal, to
Dubois. Very soon after this Dubois met with an accident
368 LOUIS XV, [CH.
while he was reviewing the king's troops, and died a day
or two afterwards. vjL
A few months liter the Eegeut too, who had been iU
for some time, died suddenly one evening while the 'K'lTig
was sitting in a room close by, waiting for the Duke to
come up to work with him. Philip of Orleans had left oflf
being regent by the time this happened. The little king
was now thirteen years old, and, according to the French
laws, was old enough to rule by himseK. Philip of Orleans
and Dubois had not been good rulers for France. Philip
had thought only of his pleasures, and Dubois had cared
more for his own power and fame than for anything else ;
but still they had done something to make France strong
and powerful among the countries of Europe, and the men
who were to come after them were worse than they had been.
Louis XV. was not a promising child. He was duU,
silent, took no interest in anything, and cared for nobody.
He had a very small cow and a white doe, which were his
chief friends. He used to milk the little cow himself, and
the doe followed him about everywhere ; but he did not
really care for them. Just about the time that he came
of age, he made up his mind, for no special reason, to kiU
his white doe. He took a gun and shot at it. It was
wounded, but had strength enough to crawl up to him and
lick his hand. He had it taken away to the right distance,
shot at it again, and this time killed it He had never had
any one to teach him anything good ; his parents had died
when he was two years old, and the people who brought
him up seemed to be trjdng to make him cruel and self-
indulgent and idle. He grew up as bad a man as might
be expected.
XLVL] LOVIS XV, 369
Hi« first mmister was the Duke of Bourbolx, a man as
bad as the Eegent, and less clever; his second was Car-
dinal Meury, an honest, quiet, rather slow old man, who
managed the affairs of the country well throudi the six-
teen years during which his power lasted./ When the
king was old enough to be married, a Polish princess was
chosen to be his wife. JHer father had once been king of
Poland, but had been turned off the throne, and was living
as a private person. He was much delighted when his
daughter was sent for to become Queen of France. She was
several years older than the king, who never cared much
about her.
A few years later the King of Poland died. It was a
question who should be king after him, whether the father
of the French queen, or the son of the last king, who was
a German. The Poles wished for Stanislaus, the French
king's father-in-law, and he set off for Poland, hoping that
Louis would send him an army to help him conquer his
German enemy, but. he was disappointed. Louis was
thinking about other matters ; no army came, and Stanis-
laus soon had to leave the country and come back to
France, where he stayed for the rest of his life. Diyecily
after this there was a war between France and Austria,
which lasted for three years, and at the end of which
France gained, by a treaty, the province of Lorraine on the
east side of France ; which, joining on to Alsace and the
Three Bishoprics, Metz, Verdim, and Toul, made a kind of
boundary between France and Germany, and was consi-
dered then, and has been thought since, very important
for the safety of France.
At this time the people of France were suffering
2b
370 LOUIS XV, [CH.
— I , . . , — ,_
terribly. A French writer, just after the peace had been
made between France and « Austria, said: *'At this very
moment in which I write, in time of peace, men are dying
all round us, as thick as flies ; they are wretched, eating
grass." One day, when the king drove into Paris, the
people, instead of crying, " Long live the King ! " shouted
out " Misery, famine, bread ! " as he went by. Once when
Louis was holding a council, the Duke of Orleans threw on
to the table a bit of bread made of bracken or fern, and
said : " See, Sire, this is your subjects' food." At this time
one of the taxes which the people most hated was put on
all over the country; it was called the corvee, and it
meant that when new roads were made, going from one
part of the country to another, the peasants who lived
where the road was being made were to go and work upon
it for nothing, and lend their horses or carts, if they were
wanted, both for making the road at first and for keeping
it in repair afterwards. As they had to do this without
being paid, it made them very angry.
At about this time the king began to lead a very bad
life, doing nothiag but amuse himself in all sorts of wrong
ways. But the people did not know of this, and cared
much more about him than he deserved. Once when he
had a dangerous illness, they were all in despair at the
thought of his death, and when he began to get better,
they <;ould hardly do enough to show their pleasure.
When the reign of Louis XV. was about half over, the
Emperor of Germany died. He had been very anxious
that his daughter Maria Theresa should govern the
empire after him, and that her husband should be
Emperor. He had made laws to say this should be so,
XLVL] LOUIS XV, 371
■ ' ■ ■ ^^^^— ^^^^^^i^^^^™ , I ■■ ■ I ■■ ■ I I —i^^^VI I II I I ■ ■ ^^^^^ I I I ^-^^^^^^V-^K II ■ ■ ■ - ■- ■ ■ ■ w w-ai ■ ■ ■ ■■ HH^^BBI I I ^B^.^^
and he had been constantly asking the other princes of
Europe to promise that they would do nothing to prevent
it. Some of them had promised and others had not, but
when he died they almost all turned against Maria Theresa
and said, whoever had the empire, it should not be she.
After some disputing, almost all the countries of Europe
went to war. Maria Theresa's husband was the Archduke
of Austria, so Austria was on her side, and England and
Sussia. On the other side were France, Spain, Prussia —
which waa just beginning to become known aa a distinct
nation — Poland, and many of the small German princes.
The war lasted for eight yeaxs, and whUe it was going
on there were two great battles fought between the English
and the French — one at Dettingen, in the Netherlands, won
by the English, and another at Fontenoy, gained by the
French. When peace was made at last at Aix-la-Chapelle,
it was settled that Maria Theresa's husband should be
Emperor, under the name of Francis I., and that she
should have all the possessions her father had meant to
leave her, except one, which she gave up to the King of
Prussia.
While this war was going on the French gained a great
deal of land in India. They had two famous generals, who
conquered Madras and other places, driving the English
out of them. The English took nearly all these places
away from them about ten years later, in the time of Lord
Olive, but just at the moment the French gained great
glory by their triumphs in India.
After the war with Austria there were eight years of
peace, and then seven years of war, but neither in peace
nor in war did Louis XV, show any good qualities or do
.372 LOUIS XV. [CH.
/
anything that was for the good of his country. An ambas-
sador staying at his court said that he could not find even
one hour a day for serious businesa He spent his time
in hunting and other amusements, and there was usually
some lady about the court to whom he would listen more
than to any one else, and whose advice he took on all sorts
of matters, which he ought to have settled himself, or with
the help of the ministers. Several great men lived under
his reign; among others, several great writers, of whom the
chief was Voltaire, a great friend of the King of Prussia,
and a man who has written many interesting books him-
self, and had many amusing and curious things written
about him, which are to be read in books of various
languages. There were other writers, too many for me to
teU you their names, though they were none of them,
except Voltaire, as famous as the men who had lived in
the reign of Louis XIV.
The last war in this reign was called The Seven Years'
War, so called from the length of time for which it lasted,
and was between England and France, and also between
Prussia and Austria. England and Prussia were friends,
though their armies did not fight together, but went on
separately, each attending only to their own enemies, and
France and Austria, who had been such fierce enemies, had
now made a treaty and were on the same side.
At first the French armies seemed to be successful,
especially against King Frederick of Prussia, who was
beaten in a great battle, and who, with his small army
and enemies all around him, expected to be entirely de-
stroyed. But in this great difficulty he showed himself to
be one of the best soldiers in Europe. No one had known
XLVi.] LOUIS XV. 373
it of him before, and there was great surprise when he
suddenly led his men against the French, and defeated
them so thoroughly that for a long time he had no more
trouble with them. He made marches which took every
one by surprise, and always appeared with his small army
just when his friends wanted him most, and his enemies
the least expected him. The English beat the French by
sea, and then took from them all they had won in Canada
and in India. When the war ended by the Peace of
Paris in 1763, the English gave up some of the places in
India, but kept all Canada, which has been under English
government ever since. A peace was made between
Austria and Prussia at the same time as the peace of Paris
between France and England, and thus aU the. war in
Europe stopped.
While this war was going on, a man named Damiens
made an attempt to kill the king. He stabbed him in the
back with a knife, one day when Louis was getting into
his carriage at Versailles for a drive. Damiens always
said that he meant only to woimd the king, not to kill
him, and this seems true, for he had stabbed him with the
smaller of two blades which he had in his knife, and had
made only a slight scratch, so that the doctor said : "If
the king were any common man, he would be able to go
to his work again to-morrow." However, the king was
terribly frightened, thought the knife might be poisoned,
and even when he foimd that he had got completely well,
was so much disturbed, that he had Damiens tried and put
to death in the most cruel way that had then been dis-
covered.
The reign of Louis lasted for eleven more years after
374 LOUIS XV. [CH.
the peace of Paris, but there is scarcely anything to .be
said about them. As I have said, he had always some
great lady for his favourite, whose advice he took about
everything, so that when he chose his favourite badly the
affairs of the country went on ill. One was the Madame
de Pompadour, of whom pictures are often to be seen in
old French fashion-books, and who seems to have done up
her hair in a powdered pyramid on the top of her head,
which was probably the fashion for ladies of that time.
She gave Louis bad advice, and was the enemy of the
Dauphin, the king's eldest son, who died before his father,
so that the next heir was the king's grandson. Louis XV.
died in 1774.
- 5-. - - — -
XLVii.] LOUIS XVL 375
CHAPTEE XLVII.
Louis XVI. (1774-1792).
LotJis XV. was succeeded by his grandson, also called
Louis, as every French, king since Henry IV. had been.
He was twenty years old when he became king, and was
an honest, weU-meaning young man, who folly intended
to do what he could for the country, and to undo as much
as possible of the harm his grandfather had done(^ He
had a young wife named Marie Antoinette, the daughter
of Maria Theresa, who had fought with the French in
the Seven Years' War. Marie Antoinette was beautiful,
lively, and kind-hearted, very proud and determined, but
foolish and ignorant. She was often much provoked with
the king, who, though kind and gentle, was weak and
undecided, and never could make up his mind as to what
to do in a difficulty, tiU it was too late to do anything.
However, her advice was often bad, for she knew scarcely
anything about the country over which she had become
queen.
The reign began happily. Louis changed all the old
nunisters, and did all he could to change the old habits of
the courtiers as welL He worked hard himself at his
duties as a king, and tried to make his ministers do the same ;
and to prevent the people about him from wasting their
376 LOUIS XVL [CH.
time and money in amusement, dress, and other foolish or
bad ways, which had been usual in his grandfather's reign.
His chief minister was named Maurepas ; he was an old
man who had had nothing to do with the Government for
so long that he did not understand the state of the country,
and gave the young Ving much advice which did not turn
out well for him in the end. But Louis was fortunate
enough to have one really great and wise man among his
ministers. His name was.Turgot, and Louis made him
Finance Minister, that is, the minister who has to attend to
all that concerns the money of the kingdom, to see that
the taxes are collected, to know how much the king has in
his treasury, and above all to think of new ways for getting
more, so that the treasury may never.be empty. This was
stiU as great a difficulty as it always had been in France.
The people who had most money to spare paid scarcely
any taxes ; the poor people already paid so many, that it
would have been useless to ask them for more. Turgot
did what he could, and made himself many enemies, so
many that at last even the king was persuaded that Tmv
got's plans could never be carried out, and he was sent out
of the ministry. The king at one time used to say, " There
is no one but Turgot and I who cares, for the people."
After this there were several finance ministers, one
after the other, who all tried different plans for filling the
treasury, and all failed. The most successful was one
called M. Necker, who was a great favourite with the
people. At this time there was a war between England
and the English colonies in America, in which the colonies
were successful, and separated theinselves entirely &om
England under a government of their own, which they
XLVii.] LOUIS XVI. 377
have kept till the present time. While the war was going
on the Americans asked for help against England from
many of the countries of Europe, in particular from
France, which was nearer to them than Eussia, Prussia, or
Austria. A band of young French noblemen went over to
help the Americans, and had the pleasure of seeing them
get the better of the English and end the war, as I have
said, by a peace, in which they gained all that they had
wished.
It is said that these Frenchmen brought back to France
the idea of a country without a king and without noble-
men, where the people governed themselves; and that
hearing of it was one of the reasons which made the French
so discontented with their king and all the hardships they
had to bear from the proud nobles. In particular, the
soldiers heard of the new ideas, and listened to them
eagerly. The war was a fresh difficulty to France, by
causing still more money to be spent. The nobles would
pay no more taxes; the poor could pay no more; and all
Necker could do was to borrow money, which, as it all had
to be paid back again, did not reaUy help him so much as he
had hoped. He gave it up at last, left off being minister,
and another man was chosen instead of him. By this time
the king and queen were no longer such favourites as they
had been with the people. The king^s faults began to
show themselves more. As the difficulties of governing
grew greater, he seemed less inclined to struggle against
them. His favourite amusements were hunting and lock-
smith's work ; he spent a great deal of time in both of
these. He had a locksmith to giv% him lessons in making
locks and keys, and was often engaged in this amusement
378 LOUIS XVL [CH.
when he might have been learning things about his coon-
tiy, which it would have been a blessing for him and his
subjects if he had known.
The queen was gay and lively, and liked to behave as
if she had been a private person ; she had a little farm
made for her, called Trianon, where she often went in plain
clothes, and passed the day in looking after the cows,
poultry, and butter. She also gave balls and parties of all
kinds at her different palaces and places of amusement, and
went constantly to the play, the opera, and all kinds of
gaieties. She had boating parties and moonlight parties
in her garden, and walked or danced with the gayest of
her courtiers for hours at a time, while the king was shut
up with his locksmith, enjoying himself as any private
person might have done. The people, who were in great
distress, were vexed to see the queen enjoying herself in
this way, and thought her more heartless than she really
was, for she seems to have had a kind heart, and to have
wished well to everybody, though she had no idea in what
way to please them.
The new finance minister soon got into fresh trouble,
as Necker had done. He proposed to put some fresh taxes
on the nobles and the clergy, and advised the king to call
a council of some of tiie wisest men in the kingdom, in
order to propose this tax to them, try to persuade them to
agree to it, and ask their advice as to what else could be
done to free the country fix)m its difficulties. These men
met together, and were called the Notables, as they were
supposed to be noted or specially known for being impor-
tant people among their neighbours. The Notables could
not agree to the minister's proposals, and after a few months
XLVii.] LOUIS XVL 379
the Assembly was closed without having done much good,
though the angry speeches that had been made might have
shown the king's Government that the people were grow-
ing more disturbed than they had ever been before, and
that they were becoming more and more inclined to exa-
mine for themselves into what was going on, and to try to
set right the matters which Louis and lus ministers did
not seem able to set right for them. ^
About this time the king and queen had their first
child, a daughter, and soon afterwards a son. They gave
away a great deal in presents to the poor in honour of
these happy events, and so pleased the people for a time ;
l}ut some of the enemies the king had at court soon man-
aged to stir up the people again against him. Louis had
been persuaded to promise to call together the States-
General. These had not met since the beginning of the
reign of Louis XIII., a hundred and seventy-five years be-
fore. It was hoped that the States-General would settle
all tJie alfairs of the country, which had now fallen into so
much confusion. In the meantime Louis recalled Necker,
and made him Finance Minister once more.
The members of the States-General were elected or
chosen as they had always been by the people, but there
had never before been so much interest in the elections.
The old lists of complaints were drawn up by the electors,
and given to the deputies, who were to lay them before the
king. Twelve hundred members were chosen, some by the
nobles, some by the clergy, and the rest by the people.
The members all met at Versailles, and they marched in
procession into Paris, fifteen miles off, to go. to mass at the
church of N&tre Dame. Out of the twelve hundred mem-
380 LOUIS XVL [ch.
bers, six hundred had been chosen by the people, so that
their deputies were half of the whole number, and had as
much power as the deputies of the clergy and the nobles
added together. There had been different arrangements to
prevent this in the old States-General, but now no one was
strong enough to resist what the people wished.
The procession was a very grand sight. Ihe deputies
of the commons marched first in plain black cloaks and
white cravats ; then came the nobles, in cloaks of velvet,
dyed bright colours, or worked with gold, adorned with
rustling laces and waving plumes ; after them the clergy in
their full dress as priests ; and last of all the king himself,
with his household all in their most splendid costumes. All
along the road were thick crowds of people who had come
out from Paris to see them pass, and were looking on from
roofs of houses, windows, lamp-posts, or from the road,
wherever they could find a place to see the deputies pass
by. The deputies reached Paris, heard mass, and next day
came back to Versailles, to the hall where they were to meet, n
and where the long opened the States-General.
From this time the serious troubles of Louis XVI.
began. His people had been angry and discontented be-
fore, but he had hardly known it, or had thought that the
troubles might easily be set right, if he and the people once
understood each other. The people themselves had hardly
known how much there was which they disliked and
wished to have altered in the Government, till their deputies
met together and began to make their grievances seem
worse by talking them over with each other. It was so
new an idea to the common people of France, that they
were strong enough to force the Government to give them
XLVIL] LOUIS XVL 381
what they wished, that they did not know how to use their
strength wisely. At this time the king felt the bad results
of what EicheHeu and Louis XIV. had done in weakening
the nobles, and taking away so much of their power that
they had no strength left, and could do nothing on the side
either of the king or of the people. They might have taken
the side of the king, and been ready to defend him against
the people, or they might have helped the people to gain
the things which it was right that they should have, and
have resisted them when they became lawless, and began
to take what could not be given up to them.
However, Louis had no idea of fighting with his people,
and when the States-General began, the people had no
idea of fighting with their king. The deputies of the com-
mon people decided to give themselves a name. They had
been called the Third Estate, the clergy and the nobles
having been the First and the Second Estates, but they now
wished for something different, and after some disputing,
settled to caU themselves the National Assembly, as if they
had been there to answer for the whole of France, and the
nobles and clergy had been of no importance at all. Thie
other two orders were not strong enough to resist this,
especially as the king could not or would not help them. '
After this had been settled the National Assembly be-
came more and more violent. The king tried to stop the
meetings for a time by shutting up the great hall in which
they were usually held ; but the deputies at once found
another place of meeting, and in a tennis-court close by
they took an oath never to separate, whatever any one
might do to dismiss them, tiU they had finished their work
of setting right all that had gone wrong in the government
382 LOUIS XVL [ch.
of France. Most of the deputies of the clergy came over
to the side of the National Assembly, though the deputies
of the nobles still resisted them.
The king, at last determined to satisfy his people, and
leave them no excuse for refusing to obey him, went to the
National Assembly and made a speech, in which he pro-
mised to make great alterations in the laws, giving them more
than they had ever had before, of the power, the freedom,
■
and the safety, for which, as he knew, they had long wished.
Louis ftdly expected that the Assembly would now be
satisfied, but it was too late ; the deputies had grown angry,
and refused to accept these promises from the king, saying
that it was for them to make such laws, not for him. They
refused to separate until the next day, as the king had
ordered them to do at the end of his speech, went on with
their discussions as usual, and when the king's officer
came to command them to leave the hall, they replied that
they would not go unless they were driven out by the
bayonet.
This was the first time the king's subjects had actually
disobeyed him, and this was the time at which he should
have defended his own rights, if he ever meant to defend
them ; but even now it was hard for him to defend himself,
for many of the soldiers took the side of the people, and
refused to march when their officers commanded them.
The king could never make up his mind in a difficulty ; he
was slow and undecided, listening to first one person and
then another, and always inclined to think other people's
opinions better than his own. He commanded the nobles
to join with the other two orders in the National Assembly,
and they at last did so.
XLVliJ LOUIS XVL 383
The king now began to feel himself in danger, and he
ordered that some bodies of soldiers on whom he thought
he might depend, should be brought up round Paris. The
Assembly begged him to dismiss these troops, and he re-
fused. A few weeks after, the king dismissed Necker, the
Minister of Finance, who was a great favourite with the
people, but who was not able to give any help in these
troubles. When the people heard that he was gone, they
thought that the king must be planning some great attack
upon them. Some of the king's chief enemies made them
speeches, telling them they were in great danger, and
the townspeople marched through the streets in bodies,
with green boughs in their hats, carrying busts of Necker
in triumph.
After this the French Guards, the king's own soldiers,
joined the people ; they refased to march agaiost the mob,
or to listen to their ofScers, and they drove the foreign
troops, who were still faithful to the king, out of Paris.
The ofScers of these troops had no orders from the Mrig ;
they only made matters worse, and the people more angiy,
when they tried to keep order. This was a Sunday; the
next day, Monday, no work was done. All the shops,
except those for food, were shut; the people put on
ribbons of red, white, and blue, the old colours of Paris
and of the army mixed, in order to show that the people
arid soldiers were Mends. This ribbon of three colours
was called the tricolor, and has been the colour of the
French Bepublic ever since.
The people with their ribbons marched through the
streets from one place to another asking for arms. On
their way they came to a debtors' prison, broke it open,
384 LOUIS XVL [CH.
and let out the prisoners. Some other prisoners who
were being punished for crimes, not for debt, heard of
this, and hoping the people would help them, began to
break up the pavement of their prison and prepare to
escape; but when the crowd came by they fired. down
upon the prisoners and made them stay where they were.
There were not many arms to be found, but all the smiths
of Paris were set to work making them. They found
money, more than a hundred thousand pounds, in the
H6tel de ViUe, or Town HaU, which they carried off, and
bought every musket in the town.
It was reckoned that in thirty-six hours fifty thousand
pikes would be ready for the masses of men who were
waiting for them. The next day the mob went for arms
to the H6tel of the InvaUdes, a large building used as a
hospital for old soldiers. They rushed to the building,
and the governor knew that his troops would not resist
them. They made their way in, and carried oflf thirty
thousand muskets and twenty pieces of cannon. The
pavement in the streets was pulled up; those who had
no arms carried stones ; the city was ui an uproar, and all
this time the king and his advisers and captains could
do nothing. The king at Versailles thought there was
no danger. When they told him of what was going on,
he said, with some surprise, "Why, this is a revolt!"
" Sire,** one of his friends said, " it is not a revolt, but a
revolution."
The French Eevolution is indeed the name by which
this great rising up of the French people against their
rulers has always been known* Bevolution really means a
turning round, a^d so it is used to express any great
n
XLVii.] LOUIS XVI, 385
change in the state of affairs, of whatever kind. There
have been other revolutions in Prance since this first great
one, but no other of so much importance.
The people in Paris next resolved to attack the Bastille,
an old and very strong prison, guarded by a governor and
garrison, in which important prisoners were kept, and
which answered in some respects in Paris to the Tower in
London. The people wished to destroy it, because it
belonged to the king, and was a strong place from which
they might be attacked ; and the king had given special
orders to the Government to defend it, whatever might
happen. It had thick walls round it, with towers on
them, drawbridges, and dry ditches. The people cut the
chains of the outer drawbridge, so that it fell down, and
they were able to make their way into the outer court.
For four hours they besieged the building, firing muskets,
attacking it with stones and pi|:es, forcing their way in at
doors or windows, till at last the governor, who had only
a hundred and thirty men, and saw that they would fight
for him no longer, handed out a paper, saying that he
would give up the castle — opened the doors, came out
with his men, and let in the crowd. A promise had been
made that his life and the lives of his men should be safe,
but it was not kept. He and many of the others were put
to death by the angry people as they went through the
streets. The Bastille was destroyed, and the prisoners, of
whom there were only seven, set free.
The next day the king went to the Assembly, promised
that the foreign troops should leave Paris, and assured the
deputies that he was ready to do what his people wished.
He went into Paris, where he showed himseK with a
2 C
386 LOUIS XVL [CH.
tricolor cocade in his hat, and was loudly cheered by the
people. He went back again to Versailles, hoping that
everything might yet go well
The nobles saw more clearly that this was impossible.
The king would never be able to control the people ; he
was too weak, and they were too angry to be kept quiet,
except by force. The nobles, who were also weak, instead
of staying to do the best they could for the king, left him
and their country, and went away to Germany and the
neighbouring countries, where they waited till it should
be safe for them to go back again into France. This is
called the Emigration of the Nobles. Their servants, who
were left -with nothing to do, went at once to join in the
disturbances and confusion that were now going on, not
only in Paris, but all over France.
The peasants were rising up to murder their lords, bum
down their houses, and destroy their property. They were
not satisfied with putting their prisoners to death, but
tortured them first in many horrible ways. In Paris, if a
man was of noble family it was considered reason enough
for hanging him in the streets without any kind of trial.
The streets of Paris at this time were lighted by lanterns
hung on chains stretched across the road from one side to
another, and so arranged, that when the lamp was to be
lighted the chains could be loosened and the lantern let
down so low as to be reached from the street. The usual
way which the people chose of putting their enemies to
death was to lower the lantern in this way, fasten the
prisoner to it by the neck, and then draw the lantern up
again.
All order was entirely at an end in Paris, and as no
XLVIL] LOUIS XVL 387
one did any work, there was soon great distress ; a large
crowd gathered every morning round the bakers' doors,
and formed themselves into a queue, that is, a tail or long
row, each going up in turn for his loaf as soon as the
doors were opened. The women of Paris were usually
sent to stand in the queues and buy bread, while their
husbands were joining in whatever was going on. Many
of these women were fishwives, or sellers of some kind of
goods, wild, fierce, strong women, often more cruel than
the men.
One morning in October a body of these women were
waiting as usual in the streets for their daily supply of
bread. The evening before the king and queen had given
a large party at Versailles. A new body of soldiers had
joined the troops the king had with him, and were wel-
comed by a grand dinner. Louis and his queen went
round to see the feast as it went on, and the soldiers
received them with loud cheers, and sang a loyal song,
" Eichard, my king, the world has all forsaken thee."
The poor queen, who had so few friends left, was much
pleased 'at this friendliness ; she gave cockades of white
ribbon, which was the royal colour, to the soldiers ; they
drank her health, and were eager to put on her colours.
An account of this had come to Paris. The people
were angry to hear of fresh troops being at Versailles.
The women were very likely provoked to think of all this
feasting going on so near at hand, whHe they and their
chUdren were starving. A young woman took up a drum
and began to walk through the streets, beating it and
calling out, " Bread ! bread !" All the other women joined
her in a body, and they went to the H6tel de Ville, or
388 ' LOUIS XVL [CH.
Town Hall, broke into it, and took out arms, and then
finding some of their Mends, and of the king^s enemies, to
lead them, set out for Versailles to speak to the king him-
self and the National Assembly, and ask for bread.
The distance from Paris to Versailles is about fifteen
miles. The women took nearly seven hours for the march.
It was raining, and the women were dripping with wet by
the time they reached Versailles. Numbers of men had
followed them, and some of the National Guard, or the
soldiers of Paris. All these people came to the hall of the
Assembly, and sent in a few women to ask for leave to go
and speak to the king. They were allowed to go with
some of the deputies from the Assembly, and the king
spoke to them kindly, and promised that food should be
sent to Paris, and that grain should be sold cheaply.
When the people who had been waiting for an answer
to their message heard of the king's promises, they said
words were not enough, and they must have food at once.
They broke into the hall of Assembly, and would have
broken into the palace if the guards had not kept them
back. The business of the Assembly was stopped by the
women shouting to the deputies as they got up to speak,
" Bread ! Not so many long speeches." This went on all
the evening, till at last night came. The crowd had to
sleep in sheds, coffee-houses, churches, or under whatever
shelter they could find.
The king and queen, who had been in great distress and
trouble all the day, could even now scarcely decide whether
to resist the people boldly, to agree to aU they wished, or
to make their escape to Grermany, where their friends the
nobles were, and leave matters in France to take their
XLVIL] LOUIS XVL 389
course. The queen was always brave and active, and she -
tried to persuade Louis to call out his soldiers and re-
sist the people, but to this he could not make up his
mind.
Early the next morning a dispute arose between the
crowd outside and the soldiers in the palace. The mob
attacked the gates, killed some of the guards, and made
their way into the palace. The queen had to escape in
her dressing-gown to the king's room, thinking her own
would be broken into by the people, but her guards were
able to defend her door until a body of friendly soldiers
came to their help. The people were at last persuaded to
leave the palace by Lafayette, the captain of the National
Guard, who was a Mend both of them and of the king and
queen. Later in the day the king came out on the balcony,
and spoke to the crowd of people. They invited him to
go with them to Paris, thinking that if he were there he
would be forced to keep his promises for the supply of
bread. The king at last agreed to go, and set out the same
day with the queen, who had refused to be separated from
him, whatever risks she ran, and their two children — a
daughter and a son. They went back in their carriage
with the procession of women, who shouted out jokes and
insults at them all the way. "Here is the baker, the
baker's wife, and the baker's boy," was one of their rude
jokes. The royal family was taken to the palace of
the Tuileries, and they never, except once, left Paris
again.
The reign of Louis may be said to be over. A king
who is a prisoner in his capital in the power of a mob can
hardly be said to govern, though he was still called king.
390 LOUIS XVL [ch.
and still expected by his people to set eveiything right for
them, though they had left him scarcely any power to do
anything. I will continue the story of the Bevolution in
another chapter.
XLViii.] THE REVOLUTION, 391
CHAPTEE XLVIII.
The Revolution (1789-1792).
The people all this time were not obeying the Assembly
which they themselves had chosen any more than the king,
neither were they obeying the men who were called the
king's ministers, of whom new ones were being constantly
chosen, without anyone even knowing ox caring who they
were, or what they wished to do. The real leaders of the
people were constantly changing. When a great body of
men join together to do anything, they must always have
some one to lead them, but when all law and order has
been overthrown, the leader is not likely to be able to keep
his power long. If he tries to keep order, he is certain to
become disliked and to lose his power. This happened to
many different sets of men before the Eevolution was over.
At first the leaders of the people were members of the
Assembly, and of these the chief was a man named Mira-
beau, who was a great speaker and a friend of the people.
He spoke so well that he almost always persuaded his
hearers to agree to what he wished, and to think as he did,
and as he tried to prevent the people from going too far, and
to put a stop to the struggle between them and the king, he
was of great use to the country, and if he had lived longer
might have prevented some of the troubles which were
392 THE REVOLUTION. [CH.
coming upon the nation. The Count of Lafayette was an-
other of the important men of this time. He was a soldier
who had fought in America, a brave, honest, sensible man,
loved by the people and trusted by the king. He had
persuaded the people to leave the palace of Versailles when
they were trying to break into it, and he always had great
power over them.
There were many other men who gave the people far
more violent advice. The best known of these are three
men who had not become of much importance at the time
of which I am writing, but who soon afterwards became so
strong that no one could resist them. Their names were
Eobespierre, Danton, and Marat. They were amongst the
fiercest and most cruel of all the leaders of the Eevolu-
tion.
The king and queen soon found that they were really
prisoners in their palace. The people were constantly
watching them, whatever they did, and wherever they
went. They would not let them leave Paris. When the
king tried once to go out into the country to hunt, the
people cut the traces of the carriage, so that he could not
go on. When the queen went to walk, she was so much
insulted by the people that at last she left off going out at
all, and spent her time indoors, doing needlework and
teaching her little son, the Dauphin, a boy of about seven
years old. They were always trying to make plans for
leaving Paris and joining their nobles and other friends in
Germany, who were ready to raise an army and march
into France to put a stop to the Eevolution, if the king
would come to put himself at their head. Marie Antoin-
ette was very anxious he should do this, thinking it was
XLViiL] THE REVOLUTION. 393
worth while taking some trouble, and running the risk
there would be in making his escape from prison, in order
to be free from the dreadful life they were leading ; but
Louis could not persuade himself that things might not
even yet come right, and he could not bear to declare him-
self openly as the enemy of his people.
The Assembly, meantime, went on making very sur-
prising laws, and altering all old habits and customs. The
right of making peace and war was taken away from the
king ; the clergy had their livings taken away from them,
so that they were left with no means of earning money ;
the nobles lost all their rights, and even their titles ; they
were to be called only by their family names. After a
time people even left off saying Mr. and Mrs., and called
each other citoyen or citoyenne instead, as if we were to
say in English Citizen Smith, or Citizeness Brown.
When the day came round on which the Bastille had
been taken the year before, the people resolved to have a
great meeting in honour of the event. Seats were put up
in an open space in Paris, called the Champ de Mars, and
there three hundred thousand people came together with
the king, those of the nobles who were left, and every one
of importance in the country, and solemnly took an oath
to be true to the king, the law, and the nation. In the
evening a dance was held on the place where the Bastille
had stood.
But the leaders of the Assembly were not certain of
their power in spite of all these rejoicings; the soldiers
were revolting because their wages were not paid, and re-
fusing to obey their ofi&cers. The soldiers about Metz
were the worst, and Bouill4 the commander there, had to
394 THE REVOLUTION, [CH.
fight regular battles with some of the regiments, killing or
taking prisoners almost all their men before they would
yield to him. The disorder grew greater all over France,
and more and more of the nobles fled from the country.
It became a common thing for young noblemen, when they
^ left the opera at night, to tell the coachman to drive to
Coblentz, a city in Germany, close to- the borders of
France, where many of the nobles had assembled to make
plans for forcing then* way back into France.
All the king's friends advised him to do the same.
Even Mirabeau, who was now openly leaving the side of
the people and going over to that of Louis, advised him to
leave Paris, put himself at the head of some of the troops,
who would still have been faithful to him, and resist his
enemies by force. It was, however, settled at last that he
should leave the country altogether. The royal family
made a most clumsy plan for escaping. They meant all to
travel together, disguised as the children and servants of
a certain Baroness de Korff, who, it was said, wished to
leave Paris on a particular day. The governess of the royal
children was to be the baroness, the queen her waiting-
maid, the king her man-servant, the king's sister, Madame
Elizabeth, her friend; the little princess and prince her'
children. They were to travel in a large, slow, lumbering
coach, so big, that no one who saw it could help noticing
it, and they were to take with them a great deal of luggage
and some German servants, who knew scarcely any
French.
However, some of their Mends arranged the journey
itself very cleverly and carefully ; bodies of soldiers were
sent to all the towns through which the travellers would
XLViii.] THE REVOLUTION. 395
have to go till ttey reached the borders of Germany, which
ought not to have taken them more than about two days.
The soldiers could not come quite close to Paris, as the
people would have suspected that something special was
going to happen, but they stayed at a place so near, that
it was supposed the coach with the royal family would
reach it in about twelve hours. But everything went
wrong with the king on this journey, as it did in the other
events of his life.
The big coach with the royal party escaped from Paris
one night, and set off on the road for Germany. The king
was foolish enough to stop often, to walk up the hills, and
to show himseK in the villages through which he passed.
It was soon found out that he had left Paris, and messen-
gers were at once sent after him. All along the way the
big coach and the soldiers waiting to meet it had been
noticed. It was easy to find out which way Louis had
gone, and not very dif&cult to catch hiin up, for the coach
went so slowly that he had only gone sixty-six miles in
about twenty hours. However, the king's friends had
arranged things so well for him, that he had reached the
very village in which the soldiers were waiting for him
before he could be caught.
In the last village where he had stopped, the post-
master had seen him put his head out of the window, and
had noticed his likeness to the heads of the king on the
the paper money that had lately been printed. He was a
friend of the Bevolution, and he set out after the coach to
bring the royal family back. The courier, or servant on
the coach, whose business it was to know the places
through which they passed, had no idea whereabouts in
396 . THE REVOLUTION, [CH.
the viUage the soldiers waiting for the king were to be
found. They were in another 'part, over the bridge, of
which he knew nothing. The post-horses were also wait-
ing at the other end of the village. It was now about
eleven o'clock at night ; the royal family had been travel-
ling since about the same time the day before. The queen
was in despair, she went from door to door herself, inquir-
ing for the horses. They were delayed for half an hour,
and while they were waiting the postmaster fix)m the last
village, who had found out their secret, came up with a
friend, passed by them into the village, and blocked the
bridge with waggons and barrows, so that no one could
pass.
When the coach at last came up, the postmaster and
the mayor of the village, whom he had warned of what
was coming, seized the bridles of the horses, and bade the
coachman stop. Muskets were put in at the window, the
passports of the travellers were looked at ; the mayor in-
vited the whole party to come to his house till the morn-
ing, in order to save them from the crowd, which was
beginning to collect. The king soon saw that this man
knew who they were. He himseK was certain that the
soldiers who were to meet him must be somewhere close
at hand, probably in the village ; and if he had forced his
way across the bridge, taking the chance of being shot by
the people, he must have found them in a few minutes.
But he never could do what was bold and decided ; he
agreed to leave the carriage and go to the mayor's house,
and the poor queen was obliged to follow him.
Here they spent the night, and the next morning came
messengers from Paris to take them back there. One of
XLViii.] THE REVOLUTION, 397
Louis's officers made his way to Varennes, the village where
Louis had been stopped, and offered to bring his soldiers
and cut Louis out from Ms enemies, but when the king
asked if it would be hot work, he was obliged to say yes,
and Louis refused to give the order for it.
At eight o'clock in the morning the royal family set
out for Paris with a guard ; the troop of soldiers who
should have saved them, came into Varennes after a hasty
morning's march an hour after they had left it. They
reached Paris after a dismal journey with two of their
chief enemies sitting with them in the coach, their servants
bound on the roof, and a guard of ten thousand men walk-
ing by the side to keep watch over them.
After this the royal family were more than ever
watched and guarded in their palace. Even while they
were asleep, guards sat in the rooms next their bedrooms,
and watched to see that they stayed in their beds. It
would have been Mdser and better for the French people,
as well as for the royal family, if Louis had been allowed
to leave JFrance as he wished. They did not want to be
ruled by the king, and he did not want to govern them.
If they had let him go, the difficult question of what to do
with him would not have had to be settled.
The National Assembly had now done its work of
making plans and laws, which it was supposed would set
right everything that had been virrong in France. The
king agreed to everything they had arranged, and the
Assembly came to an end. An arrangement was made
4
that an Assembly like an English Parliament should be
elected every two years to manage the affairs of the
country. The first of these parliaments, called the Legis-
J«— ,. ..fl,*>
398 THE REVOLUTION. [CH.
lative Assembly, because its business was to be to make
laws, met almost directly after the National Assembly
came to an end. The new deputies had been chosen like
the old from all parts of France, and they were as fierce,
as angry, as eager to make changes in everything, as the
others had been. As the people who had joined in the
Bevolution had not all the same ideas as to what would
be good for the country, they soon began to form into
parties, some parties being more violent than others. The
most violent of all were the Jacobins, a set of men who
used to meet in a church belonging to a convent called the
Convent of the Jacobins. The church was now used only
as a hall for their meetings. The president or chief per-
son at the meeting used to sit on the top of a monument
of black marble, the other members of the club sat in the
nave of the church, old instruments of torture were hang-
ing on the walls, and bats used to fly about at night in the
dark vaults, interrupting the noise of the meetings by their
cries. In this strange place the fiercest men in France
met to discuss and to consult.
The king, though really he had no power but what the
people chose to allow him, was still allowed to forbid any
measure of the Assembly from becoming law ; it was not
to be the law of the land till he had agreed to it, and he
several times refused to agree to laws about which tha
Assembly was very eager. There was one in particular
against the priests to which he would not agree, and one
day the people resolved to go in a procession to the
Tuileries and force him to yield to them, and give his
consent to the law. They set off one morning in a body
of thirty thousand men, women, and children, to plant a
XLViii.] THE REVOLUTION, 39»
poplar which they called a taree of liberty on the terrace
in front of the Tuileries windows. They were wearing
the tricolor riband, waving pikes and olive branches round
their heads, and singing some of the songs of the Eevolu-
tion. There were so many people that it took them three
hours to pass through the hall where the Assembly was
sitting, which was the beginning of their expedition.
After this they marched to the palace.
The gates were shut, but they battered at the doors
and threatened to blow them in, till at last they were
opened, and the mob rushed into the palace, up the stair-
case, and at last, breaking down the folding-doors, burst
into the room where Louis was. Now when there was
nothing active to be done, the king showed great courage,
good sense, and good temper. He drew back into a win-
dow with a table before him to keep off the people, and
quietly asked them what they wanted. They told him
that they wished him to agree to the laws against the
priests. He answered, " This is neither the way nor the
time to obtain what you ask fix)m me." The people
crowded in with angry cries. One of the men standing
near Louis told him not to be frightened. " Frightened ! "
said Louis, "feel here!" putting the man's hand on his
heart, which was beating as steadily and quietly as usual.
Some one gave the king a red woollen cap, which was con-
sidered a sign of the Eevolution like the tricolor ribbon.
He put it on his head, and then forgot to take it off, so
that it stayed there for the rest of the day.
The queen came in with the Princess Elizabeth, Louis's
sister, and the royal children. They all stayed with the
king, as brave and as calm as he. After about three
^
400 THE REVOLUTION, [CH.
hours, the people, finding that Louis would promise them
nothing, left the palace by degrees, and at last all were
gone, and the king and his family were alone together.
This disturbance happened on the 20th of June, and made
all the friends of Louis more angry than ever with the
men 'who were the chief leaders of the Eevolution, and
several of the chief officers in the army, and other great
men in the country, offered to fight on Louis's side against
the rebels, but he would give them no orders.
Outside France the king's friends were more active.
An army was being formed in Germany by the noblemen
who had fled out of France, helped by foreigners from
different countries, and a German prince, the Duke of
Brunswick, took the command of it. It began to march
towards France, and the people became frightened and
sent for soldiers from the south of France to come up and
defend Paris. A band of six hundred men arrived from
Marseilles, brave, strong townsmen, who sang on their way
a song which is now called the Marseillaise, and has be-
come to the French Republic much what " God save the
Queen" is to Englishmen. When these men marched into
Paris, the people there were much encouraged, and began
to feel themselves strong enough to resist aU. their enemies.
They began to ask that the king should be dethroned,
and that they should have the little prince, who was then
about seven years old, for king, with protectors, who
should be friends of the Bevolution. As this was not
done, the people grew more and more discontented, and at
last, on the 9th of August, they resolved to rise up in a
body the next day, with the soldiers from Marseilles to
help them, and to attack the Palace of the Tuileries, make
XLVIIL] THE REVOLUTION. 401
themselves masters of the king, and prevent him from
bringing in his friends to do them harm. The king and
his family knew what was coming, and had a body of the
National Guard with them in the palace — men whom they
believed they could trust ; but their chief hope was in the
Swiss Guards, a body of men who had always been faithful
to the royal side, and. who were ready to die in the king's
defence. These men were posted outside the Tuileries, in
a square now called the Place de la Carrousel, between the
palace and the people.
It was the morning of the 10th of August, soon after
daybreak, when the crowd of people began to rush towards
the Tuileries. Messengers came to ask the king whether
his guards were to fire against the people. He would
answer nothing, but sat hesitating. At last some one
advised him to leave the Tuileries, and go for shelter to
the hall where the Assembly was sitting close by. He
was told that his National Guard could not be trusted,
and that in a quarter of an hour more he would not be
able to escape. He sat doubtful for a few minutes, then
looked up at the queen, and said, " Let us go." She was
obliged to fojlow him, though she would sooner have seen
him fight, at the risk of death, to defend his crown and his
palace. They walked through the crowd with their children
and Princess Elizabeth to the haU of the Assembly, and
the king told the deputies that he was come to put himself
and his family under their protection. They were at once
taken into the hall, where they knew their enemies would
not dare to attack them.
But while they made themselves safe in this way, they
left their brave Swiss soldiers to take care of themselves,
2d
402 . THE RE VOL UTION, [CH.
and without giving any orders as to what they were to do.
Now that the king was gone, there was really no use in
their staying to guard the Tmleries, but the king sent them
no message, and they stood steadily at their posts. The
Jacobins, with the Marseillese and other troops, soon ap-
peared, and when they heard the king was gone, tried to
make their way into the Tmleries. The Swiss resisted
them ; the Marseillese fired, the Swiss fired back, and soon
a fierce fight had begun. The Swiss had no chance against
the enormous number of their enemies, but they fought
like lions, and at first drove back the French and took a
few guns. But no help came, and their enemies came
back in greater and greater numbers. They stood in their
places till they were shot down one after another, so that
at last scarcely any of them were left alive. Too late
Louis sent an order to stop firing. This was impossible,
for nothing would have made the other side stop. All
through the evening and night the people hunted for any
Swiss who might by chance have escaped, and if they
found any, put them to death, so that at last scarcely any
were left.
These Swiss are among the few men who did their
duty bravely and honestly in the Eevolution, and were not
led away by the excitement and great events of the time
to do what was wrong, hoping that it might bring some
good to themselves. A stone monument, representing a
dead lion, has been put up at Lucerne, in Switzerland, to
their honour.
That evening some deputies from Paris came to the
Assembly to ask that the king's power might for a time
be entirely taken away from him, and to this the Assembly
XLVIIL] THE REVOLUTION. 40a
agreed. Louis and his family were sent a few days after-
wards to a building called the Temple, where they would
be safe from the people, and could be strictly watched to
see that they did not escape. The rest of the lives of
almost all of them were passed in this place.
The Temple was really a prison, and for the six months
in which the king and his family were there, they were
treated in every way as prisoners. They had guards always
watching them — at their meals, when they walked in the
garden, even when they slept, or were amusing themselves
as best they might in their private rooms. They had many
plans by which they managed to hear news fix)m their
friends of what was going on in France and Germany, but
they did not hear of much to cheer them. The army of
nobles under the Duke of Brunswick took one town ; but,
after that, the French general sent against him was able to
prevent him from coming farther into France, and the
people only became more fierce and angry with the king
the more they feared his friends. On the 2d of Sep-
tember, about a fortnight after the king had been sent to
the Temple, there grew up an absurd idea in Paris that all
the nobles, priests, and people of importance in the prisons
had a scheme for rising up against the people of Paris and
destroying them. The people were so much excited by this
notion, which they had no reason to think was true, that
they broke into the prisons, seized upon the prisoners, and
murdered hundreds of them. They had up each prisoner
in turn before a kind of sham court, where a pretended
trial was held to decide if the prisoner were guilty of doing
anything against the Eevolution. If he were found guilty,,
he was turned out to the people waiting at the doors, who
404 THE REVOLUTION. [CH.
killed TiiTTi at once. Women were treated in the some way
as the men. Some of the few prisoners who escaped alive
have written terrible accounts of all that they and their
companions suffered in the prisons, waiting to be brought
up for trial, and of the deaths of many of their Mends
before their eyes. At almost all the prisons in Paris the
prisoners were treated in this way, so that more than a
thousand people were murdered in Paris on this one night.
They all died without trial or fair judgment of any kind.
In this same month a new Assembly met to take the
power which had belonged to the old one. The Legislative
Assembly had lasted only for one year, instead of two as
had been proposed; but the leaders of the Eevolution
wished for a change. The new Assembly, as soon as it
met, began making decrees, of which one of the first was
that from that day there should be no more royalty in
France. The country was no longer to be a kingdom with
a monarch to rule over it, but a republic, where the ruler
was to be changed continually, and to be chosen by the
people whom he was to govern. France is a republic at
this day ; but it has had several kings and several republics
as well since the time when this first republic was set up.
The ministers who had been carrying on the Government
in the king's name, though they were always being changed,
so that no one knew exactly who they were, were done
away with altogether, and a body of men was chosen to
manage the affairs of France.
Now that the country had become a republic, it became
an important question what was to be done with King Louis.
He was living in the Temple prison patiently waiting for
what might happen to him, teaching his little son, reading
XLVIII.] THE REVOLUTION. 405
to himself or aloud to his fiEtmily, and waited on by a faith-
ful servant called Clery, who refused to leave him. The
guardians of the Temple were rude and unkind to the royal
family, and after a time separated the king from his family
in order to make his life still harder than it had been.
Questions as to what was to become of him began at last
to be asked in the Assembly ; almost all the deputies looked
upon him as their enemy, and wished that he should be
punished in some way or other for being the enemy of the
Eepublic.
At this time some papers which Louis had written a few
months before were found in an old iron press which the
king had made with the help of the locksmith who used to
teach him his trade. This man told the secret of the papers
having been put in the press, and took some of the mem-
bers of the Assembly to the place where the press was
hidden. The letters were to his different fidends, asking
them for help, and telling them his plans. The people were
made very angry by finding that some of the letters were
to men whom they had always tiU then supposed to have
been entirely on their side, but who now proved to have
been secretly friends of Louis.
One morning in December a message was sent to Louis
that he was to come before the Convention, which was the
name given to the new Assembly, to be tried as a prisoner.
When he came in, the president, or chief person in the
Convention, spoke to him as Louis, adding no title of any
kind, and quloned him as to aU the crimes which he w^
supposed to have committed. He answered shortly and
calmly, defending himself so weU that his enemies were
surprised and disappointed. After this he chose a lawyer
406 THE REVOLUTION. [CH.
to defend him, and his trial began in a fortnight's time.
Fifty-seven charges against him were read, and his lawyer
answered them, defending him on every question. Kien
the members of the Convention discussed for many days
what should next be done. At last they decided to ask
three questions : — Is Louis guilty ? Has the Convention a
right to try him ? If he is guUty, what puiushment shaU
he have ? Each deputy gave his vote separately ; they aU
said he was guilty. Two-thirds of them said that the Con-
vention had the power of trying him.
As to the question of the punishment, it took forty
hours for all the members to give their votes, though they
went on voting night and day. One member after another
went up into the tribunal, or place where the speeches were
made, and said what he wished for; some were for impri-
sonment, some for banishment, some for death. When the
votes were counted it was found that the greatest number
wished for death, and, after another long voting, it was
decided that Louis XVI. should die within twenty-four
hours.
Louis was allowed to see his family once more, to tell
them this terrible news. He sat with them for nearly two
hours on the last evening of his life — ^his wife and sister on
either side of him, his daughter, the Princess Eoyal in front,
his little son between his knees. When at last they left
him, all in the deepest grief, he promised that they should
see him again in the morning ; but this promise was not
kept. He thought that another meeting would be too sad
for them tobeax, and instead of seeing him they only re-
ceived his last affectionate messages. No one went with
him to the scaffold but the abbot, his confessor, who stayed
XLvm.] THE REVOLUTION. 407
with him tOl the last moment of his life. It was early in
the morning when he drove through the streets to the place
where the execution was to be. He began to make a speech
to the people ; but one of the Eepublican officers who stood
by made a sign to the drums, which began to beat, and
drowned his voice before he could say more than a few
sentences. What he did say was : — ^" Frenchmen ! I die
innocent. I pardon my enemies; I pray to God that
France " Here the drums began, and the executioner
seized him. The confessor stooped down and spoke these
last words to him : — "Sonof Saint Louis, ascend to heaven!"
The axe of the guillotine fell, and the executioner held up
his head to the people.
He was little more than thirty-eight years old.
408 THE REVOLUTION. [ch.
CHAPTER XLIX.
The Revolution (1792-1795).
After the death of the king the people found themselves
not much happier or more prosperous than they had been
before. There was a riot in Paris for bread, of which
scarcely any could be found ; and a body of washerwomen
came one day to complain to the Convention tiiat there was
no soap to be had in Paris. But what was worse than this,
the different parties who had joined together to make the
Revolution now began to quarrel with each other. Some of
the men who voted for the king's death had really been his
friends ; they had voted against him partly from cowardice
and partly because they thought it the best way of helping
him, as, if they pleased the Jacobins by saying he ought to
die, they hoped afterwards to be able to persuade them to
ch^eLpunishment to something less severe. When
they found their hopes were vain they were much grieved
at what had happened, and they began to hate the Jacobins,
who were the men most pleased by the death of the king,
and to look upon them as their enemies.
The friends of Louis were called the Girondists. They
had wished for a revolution of a much quieter and more
orderly kind. They did not like to see the laws broken,
and they were not really in earnest about helping to free
XLix.] THE REVOLUTION, 409
the people from all the wrongs they had had to bear, but
wanted a republic which would be like those of the Greeks
and Bomans of old times ; for the Girondists were most of
them leamied men, and knew about old times and what had
happened in them.
Jlie Jacobins, on the other side, were called the Moun-
tain, because they used to sit in the Assembly in a part of
the hall which was raised up above where the others were.
The men of the Mountain were the most violent of all the
people who took part in the Eevolution, and they looked
upon the Girondists as traitors to the people, and consi-
dered themselves as the people's special defenders.
Thus there were constant disputes going on; diffi-
culties in Paris grew greater rather than less. At last
the people rose up in a body, went to the Convention,
and obliged the members to arrest all the leaders of
the Girondists. There were thirty -two chief leaders,
who were aU arrested at once, and some of them were
afterwards brought up for trial, and put to death. Others
escaped from their prisons and had strange adventures of
many kinds while they were trying to fly for their lives
out of France, or into distant parts of the country, where
they thought they should be safe from their enemiea
The Jacobins had made an easy arrangement for
having every one who resisted them condemned quickly,
so that there might be no fear of the prisoner escaping
when he was tried for treason to the people. They had
set up a kind of court of law or tribunal, which was called
the Eevolutionary Tribunal, where any one who was
accused of being an enemy of the Kepublic was brought
up and tried, and where almost every one who was tried
410 THE REVOLUTION, [CH.
was found guilty and put to death. The men who were to
judge in these courts were chosen by the people, and so
were pretty sure at this time to be Jacobins.
The way in those days of executing prisoners was by
what was called a guillotine, a kind of axe fastened in a
frame, instead of being held in a man's hand, as was done
in old times. The prisoner had to lay his head on a ledge
like a window ledge, and the axe dropped down on his neck
from above, so as to cut his head off. In this way thfi
king had died, and most of the other people who had been
put to death in the Eevolution, except those who had been
hanged to the lanterns in the streets. The guillotine had
been invented by a doctor after whom it had been named
— a kind man who wished to spare people pain by making
their deaths as quick as possible. It is said that he was
himself put to death by one of these machines that he had
invented. The Eevolutionary Tribunal was always sending
people to the guillotine, more and more every day. There
were tribunals of this sort in every town in France. The
Girondists were tried before the Paris tribunal, and twenty-
one of them were guillotined together.
Before their death one of their worst enemies had also
ended his life. Marat was one of the three most violent
men of the Eevolution. He had made himself hated by
his cruelty, and by continually stirring up the people to
fierce acts and risings against the Convention and every
one in power.
There lived at Eouen a young woman, named Charlotte
Corday, who was a friend of the Girondists, and who was
made very angry by hearing of their arrest and trial She
had heard much about Marat and his cruelties, and she
XLIX.] THE REVOLUTION, 411
fancied that if he were but dead, the countrj^ would be
quiet once more, and the troubles of the Eevolution come
to an end.
Some of his euemies had once brought him up before
the tribunal and had a kind of trial, hoping that he might
be sentenced to death or some other punishment for his
bad deeds ; but the tribunal was on his side, and he had
been declared innocent. Charlotte Corday saw that the
only chance of his being put to death was that some
private person should do it She knew of no one who
would do it but herself. She went to Paris, asked to see
Marat, and Jound him sitting in a covered bath, where he
was accustomed to write and do business. She began to
talk to him about the affairs of Eouen, and suddenly
stabbed him in the heart with a large knife which .she had
brought with her. He died at once. His friends, who
heard him cry out, rushed in, and Charlotte Corday was
taken prisoner. Three days afterwards she was tried for
murder, and sentenced to death.
She declared solemnly at the trial that it was she who
killed Marat; that she had killed one villain to save a
hundred thousand innocent people, one fierce monster to
give rest to her country. She was taken that same
evening to the guillotine, and there her head was cut off.
She was perfectly firm and brave to the end of her life,
and looked so young and good and beautiful that even the
people who hated her most, because she had murdered
their friend, were sorry for her, and could scarcely help
admiring her. Marat was buried with great pomp and
honour, and speeches in praise of his virtues were made all
over France.
412 THE REVOLUTION. [CH.
At about this time the Convention made a new set of
rules for the government of France. There had now been
several such made, and it had not been found that the
country was much the better for them. The new plan
gave stiU more power than they had had before to the
common people, who were all to have a share in choosing
the deputies who were to make the laws of the country.
These deputies were to be chosen new every year. In
order to show more decidedly that a new state of things
had begun, all the weights, measures, and even the names
of the days and months were changed, as well as the
names and size of the different provinces into which France
was divided. There were to be no more weeks, the year
was divided in decades, each decade having ten days
instead of seven. There was to be no Sunday, but every
tenth day was to be a day of rest, so that there were three
instead of four days of Jt in everymontL Thisarrange-
ment lasted in France for twelve years, after which it was
given up, and the old names were used again for days ahd
months, though the weights and measures in France have
never been altered back to the old plan, the new one being
better and more convenient. The money of France too,
has stayed as it was made at the time of the Eevolution,
and the division of the country into eighty-five departments,
The names invented for the months were taken from the
different natural events that might be expected to happen
in them. This is a list of them.
Janiiaiy, changed to Nivose, the snowing month.
February „ „ Pluviose, the rainy month.
March „ „ Ventose, the windy month.
April „ „ Qerminal, the budding month.
XLix.] THE REVOLUTION. 413
May, changed to Floreal, the flowery month.
June „ „ Prairial, the meadows month.
July ,, „ Messidor, the harvest month.
Augost „ „ Thermidor, the heat month.
September „ „ Fructidor, the froitful month.
October „ „ Vendemiaire, the vintage month.
November ,, „ Brumaire, the foggy month.
December '„ „ Frimaire, the freezing month.
In the month of Vendemiaire or October, another per-
son of great importance was brought up for trial in the
Eevolutionary Court at Paris. This was the former Queen
of France, Marie- Antoinetta When King Louis was put
to death nine months before, she was left Hving in the
Temple with her two children and Madame Elizabeth, her
sister-in-law. In August she was separated from them,
and shut up in the most miserable prison that was to be
found in Paris. It was small, damp, and gloomy, with
nothing in it but an old mattress and a bed of straw. She
was not allowed to have any employment. Madame
Elizabeth wished to send her some knitting, but her jailors
would not let her have it, lest she should try to kiU herself
with the knitting needles.
When, after two months of this horrible treatment, the
queen was brought up for trial, there was much excitement
in Paris, and the few friends she had left tried to stir up
the people to do something in her defence, but it was of no
use. She was an Austrian by birth, and had always been
considered as a foreigner, and it was now thought unsafe
for the country that she should be kept alive. She was
accused of the same crimes as the king. She was stiU
beautiful, though she looked old and sad, and aU her hair
had turned white. Nothing was found for which she
414 THE REVOLUTION. [CH.
coald justly be panished, but it had been already settled
that she was to die, and sentence of death was passed
upon her. Nine months, after the death of her husband,
she was taken in a cart to the place of execution, and
there her head was cut ofif, and all her many troubles were
ended ; while a crowd of people looked on, horrified, but,
on the whole, wishing her to die. Her last words were :
" Grod, pardon my enemies; farewell, my beloved chil-
dren, I am about to join your father."
A few months after her, Madame Elizabeth, whom she
had chaiged to take care of her children, and be like a
second mother to them, was also brought up for trial and
guillotined. She died bravely, cheering her friends who
were to die with her by her last kind words. The children
of the king and queen were left alone in the Temple ; the
little prince was now about nine years old and his sister
fourteen. They were not together, the little boy having
been taken away from the others before his mother left
them. He had been kept since in a room by himself with
no companions or amusement — ^no one to teach him or
talk to him except the man supposed to be in charge of
him, who treated him unkindly, and at last cruelly, not
even giving him clean clothes or fresh air.
He grew dull and silent; by degrees he feU iU and
seemed to become almost an idiot. His keepers asked
him questions about his mother, and persuaded him to
say things which they repeated at her trial, and which
they told iq such a way as to make it seem that she had
done wicked and horrible things of which she was entirely
innocent. The little prince heard of this, and was so much
grieved that he declared he would never speak again, and
XLix.] THE REVOLUTION. 415
for some time kept his word. After the worst part of the
Eevolution was over, he had a kinder guardian, who tried
to amuse him and to bring back his health by kindness,
but it was too late, and the poor boy died a year or two
after his father's d^th. His sister lived to escape out of
her prison, and grew up to be a w'oman, and to write an
account of all that she and her relations had suffered.
After this a time began in France known by the name
of the Eeign of Terror, a,nd no name could better describe
the state of the French people at that time. All over
France the KevOlutionary tribunals were at work, having
up before them one person after another, trying them as
enemies to the Eevolution, and sending them to the
guillotine. In some towns the guillotine was thought
too slow. At Nantes, on the river Loire, a company of
women, with their babies in their arms, were sent on a
flat-bottomed boat into the middle of the river. The
bottom of the boat then opened, the water rushed in, the
women found themselves struggling in the river, and soon
all sank and were drowned. This happened one night
after another ; sometimes old men or clergymen were sent
out instead of women ; but whoever went out, the people
along the banks took good care that no one should come
back alive. At the same place five hundred children,
girls and boys, all under fourteen, were brought out in a
body, and arranged in lines to be'ishot. They were so
short that many of them were not touched by the bullets,
which went over their heads. After the first shot they
broke out from their lines and rushed up to the soldiers
round them, begging for their lives ; but the soldiers killed
them all with their bayonets.
416 THE REVOLUTION. [CH.
In other cities the same kind of executions were going
on. There was at this time a war in a western province
of France called La Vendue, where the people, peasants
and noblemen alike, had risen np to resist the Bevolution,
and do what was possible for the royal family while they
lived. These people made a brave struggle, but were
defeated at last, and it was some of the prisoners from this
war who were the most cruelly treated, and put to death
with the worst tortures. One of the places attacked by
the Revolutionists was Saint Denis, where the kings of
France had been buried. Their tombs were opened, and
many of the bodies were found presearved, so that they
looked just the same as when they were buried. They
were taken out of their graves and destroyed.
Soon after, it was resolved that a great feast should be
held in honour of Reason. The people who had given up
so many of their old beliefs had also given up their
religion. Many of them said that they believed all they
had been taught of God was a fable, and that there was
no God ; but still wishing for something to worship, they
said that Reason should be their God, They dressed up a
woman whom they called Reason, and then held a feast in
her honour, carrying her on their shoulders, and dancing
and singing before her. The same was done in most of
the other towns of France. It was as if for a time people
had lost their senses.
In Paris, meanwhile, the prisons were crowded more
and more. There were sometimes as many as eight
thousand prisoners shut up at one time. Every evening
carts went round to the prisons to collect those who were
to be guillotined that night. The chief leaders of the
>
xux.] THE REVOLUTION. 417
people were now Eobespierre and Danton. These two
were at this time the most important men of the Eevolu-
tion; they were cruel and bloodthirsty towards their
enemies, though in private life Danton was kind and
generous both to friends and enemies. They have always
been remembered as almost monsters of wickedness, though
something might no doubt be said on their side by people
who knew all that the French nation had had to bear
before the Eevolution began.
Danton, who had always been gentler than Eobespierre,
now began to wish to put a stop to the executions.
Eobespierre then turned against him, and accused him
before the Convention of having always been an enemy of
freedom. The Convention sent him to be tried before the
Eevolutionary Tribunal, which he himself had invented ;
he was tried for some days, and then sentenced to death
with some of his friends. He was guillotined, as so many
of his enemies had been before him. When he was on the
scaffold he said to himself, " Danton, no weakness ;" and
then to the executioner, " Thou wilt show my head to the
people, it is worth showing." These were his L^t words.
Eobespierre was left, and Eobespierre /vas now the
most powerful man in France, He had faends who for
the time seemed faithful to him, though the deaths of
Danton and Marat might have shown him that he had not
much good to hope or expect for himself. The people in
the prisons suffered terribly; they were at first, all of
them, either nobles or people of high family, who had
been accustomed to comfort and riches, and who were now
crowded together in small, low, dirty rooms, hardly ever
allowed to go even into the prison-court, with scarcely any
2 E
418 THE REVOLUTION. [CH.
air to breathe, no change of clothes, coarse unwholesome
food, old ragged mattresses for almost their only furniture,
and large rats, which sometimes came out from the walls
and gnawed their clothes, for companions. At night the
jailors would come and rattle chains outside on purpose
to distress them by making them think that some of their
friends were being taken away for execution. At first
thirty were sent to the guillotine each evening, but the
number grew greater. At last eighty often went out
together, and their places in-^ba prison were at once
filled by new prisoners sent in from the country round
Paris. A plan was made for a new kind of guiUotine,
which could cut off the heads of four people at one stroke.
But at last this grew more than the French people could
endure. They saw, too, that when aU the more important
men in the country were destroyed, the turn of others, who
were more nearly of the rank of common people, would
follow. They began to turn against Kobespierre ; the Con-
vention suspected that he would not be satisfied till some
of them had also been put to death, and resolved that if so,
he himself should die first. His different enemies, the
friends of the Girondists who were still left, the Jacobins*
who were becoming afraid of him, and the people who had
seen their friends and relations put to death by him, aU
joined together against him. He was accused in the Conven-
tion as Danton had been, and arrested ; his friends brought
up a guard and set him free. The struggle went on all day,
but by the evening his enemies had been successful.
They came into the room where he was, to arrest him.
He took out a pistol and tried to shoot himself, but only
managed to give himself a severe wound. The next after-
XLIX.] THE REVOLUTION, 419
noon Eobespierre was carried to the guillotine, and was
treated as so many other people had been by his orders —
his head was cut off and held up to the people.
This was the end of the Eeign of Terror, and it may be
said of the Eevolution as welL That evening, for the first
time, no prisoners were sent to the guillotine ; the people
in the streets, as soon as he was dead, ran about embracing
each other, and calling out, " Friends, rejoice. Eobespierre
is no more, the tigers are dead ! " This was on the day,
called, in their new calendar, the 9th of Thermidor, which
meant the 27th of July, and the party who had triumphed
then were called the Thermidorians in honour of the date.
All the peaceable and more respectable men in France rose
up to support and help them, so there seemed, for the first
time, to be some chance of the Government in France
being strong enough to resist any &esh attack that might
be made against it by the people. I will here end the
chapter of the Eevolution.
420 DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE, [CH.
CHAPTEE L.
Directory and Consulate (1795-1800).
Before the fall of Bobespierre, it had always happened
that each great change in the course of the Eevolution
had been made by some one rising up against the people
who had till then been chiefly canying on the government,
driving them out, and taking the power &om them ; but
now the Convention, which was the Government, had aU
the strength on its side. After Sobespierre's death a
number of people suddenly showed themselves, who had
been hiding out of sight tiU the Beign of Terror should
be over. They all became Thermidorians, and in par-
ticular, there appeared a large troop of young men, ready
to fight for the Convention, and keep down any tumult or
disturbance that might arise, who were called the Gilded
Youths, because they wore bright clothes, and made them-
selves look very gay. They carried clubs with lead at the
end, and were always ready to fight with the Jacobins^
whom they usually managed to drive away when fights,
did happen between them. If some of the young nobles
and other people, who were attacked at the beginning of
the troubles, before the Bastille was taken, had been able
to fight like this, it is very likely that the worst horrors of
the Eevolution might have been prevented.
L.] DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. 421
I
The executions stopped, and, by degrees, order came
back into Paris. People began to dress themselves well,
to give dances and festivals of all kinds, and to amuse
themselves as they had not cared to do while the Eevolu-
tion went on. There was one kind of dance called the
Victim's Dance. No one might come to it who had not
lost some relation by the guillotine, and every one who
was allowed to be present wore a band of crape round his
arm, to show that he had some victim to mourn for.
The Jacobins were driven out of their hall, and allowed
to hold no more meetings there, which caused fresh
rejoicings all over France. The prisoners who had been
sent up from the different parts of Prance just before the
death of Eobespierre, so that they had escaped being put
to death as he meant them to be, had terrible stories to
teU of all that had been going on in the different pro-
vinces. All over the country the same kind of troubles
had happened as those of which we hear so much in Paris.
The war in La Vendue had come to an end, the Eoyal-
ists there had been beaten by the Eepublican soldiers, and
all the chief leaders of the Vend^ans had been either
killed in battle or put to death. The war of Prance with
the countries round — Germany, Austria, and Prussia — was
still going on, and after the execution of Louis XVI., Eng-
land had also declared war agamst Prance.
There was great distress in the country, as there was
very little money and a great want of food, which made
the people restless and angry with the Government They
were stirred up by the Jacobins, who had still a little
power, though their hall was closed, to attack the Conven-
tion and ask for bread, and for the carrying out of the
422 DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. [CH.
laws that had been made by the National Assembly two
years ago, before the death of Louis. On the 20th of May
they rushed into the hall of the Convention with loud
shouts, and killed one of the deputies, but they were driven
back by the body of Gilded Youths, who came to help the
Convention, and their leaders were taken prisoners and put
to deatL
The Convention now began to make what was called
the Constitution, that is, a set of laws, arranging the
government of the country for the future. The Convention
itself was to come to an end, having lasted since the trial
of Louis, which was about three years. The chief governors
of France were to be five men called Directors, of whom
one was to leave the Government every year, and a new
one to be chosen in his place, so that there was to be a
constant change. They were to be chosen by two large
coimcils, who were also to help them with the work of
governing the country, and to turn them out of their
places if they behaved improperly. There was some resist-
ance to this arrangement in Paris, but the Convention
were strong enough to make every one submit to them at
last, and when all was settled, they gave up their power,
the Convention came to an end, and the Directory began
to rule over France.
The Directory kept its power for about four years, dur-
ing which time the affairs of the country did not go on
specially well. What was chiefly wanted in France now
was some man, strong and clever enough to make other
people obey him, so as to be able to put an end to the con-
fusion which had followed the Eevolution. All the old
ways of carrying on government had been overturned, and
L.] DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE, 423
the work of planning new ways and cairying them out was
so difficult, that it could not be done by any common per-
son. Just such a man as had been wanted now appeared,
and though he afterwards showed qualities which brought
much trouble upon himself and his country, there is no
doubt that at this time he did for France what no one else
could have done so well, and helped the country out of the
great difficulties into which its violence had brought it.
His name was Napoleon Bonaparte, and he was bom
in the island of Corsica. His father was a private gentle-
man ; and he himseK was brought up at a school for young
soldiers, and sent into the army as soon as he was old
enough. At school, his masters soon found out that he
was unusually clever and thoughtfoL He was specially
quick at learning mathematics, but was also very fond of
reading, and thought about other matters besides what were
wanted for a soldier's business. Soon after he joined the
army the Eevolution began, and he was in Paris the day
that the people broke into the Tuileries, on the 21st of
June, when Louis XVI. stood for so many hours behind
the table with the red cap on his head ; and also on the
10th of August, when the Swiss Guards were attacked by
the people and put to death.
Soon after this he was sent to help in a siege that was
going on against the town of Toulon, of which the English
had made themselves masters. An old French general was
besieging this town, who knew scarcely anything about his
business. He was very glad to ask advice of Captain
Bonaparte, though, when it was given, he was so stupid
that he could hardly be made to understand it. Bonaparte
undertook to manage the siege by himself, and succeeded
424 DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. [CH.
SO well that the town was soon taken, and the English
driven out of it.
He was afterwards sent to Italy, where he was again of
so much use that he was at last made general of the army
there. In Italy his great powers showed themselves more
and more. He always thought of unexpected ways of
coming up with the enemy when they thought him far
away; of cutting off one division of the enemjr's army
from another; and of moving his own men about more
quickly than had ever been done before. The soldiers
were delighted at the victories to which he led them, and
soon became devoted to him. They used to caU him the
Little Corporal, and had many stories about his courage
and kindness to his men, and his readiness to take part in
everything they did. Once, when one of his gunners was
killed in besieging a town, Bonaparte stepped into his
place, and fired the cannon himself for some time ; and he
would often show the men how to point the cannon, and
encourage them by always appeaxing himseK when they
were in the greatest danger.
One of his first battles was fought and won on a
wooden bridge, called the Bridge of Lodi ; one of the prin-
cipal streets in Paris is now called after another of his
Italian victories, the Kue de Eivoli ; and there were others
too many to mention. The list of Bonaparte's battles
lasts through almost the whole of his life, and is a long
one. For many years he almost always won tlie battles in
which he commanded. His soldiers fought better under
him than they would have done under any one else. Be-
iore going into battle he often made them a little speech,
by which he so much pleased and excited them, that they
Lj DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. 425
called out eagerly to be led against the enemy at once ;
and his kindness at other times made them all feel him to
be their friend, as weU as admir^ him as the greatest
soldier they knew.
One night, after a long and anxious march, Bonaparte
felt too anxious to sleep, and went out to visit the outposts.
He found a man who should have been keeping watch
asleep at the root of a tree. Without waking him he took
the gun from his hand, and watched himself as sentinel for
about half an hour, when the man woke, and was terribly
frightened at seeing what had happened. The general only
said, " My friend, here is your musket ; you have fought
hard and marched long, and your sleep is excusable, but
the army might be ruined by a moment's inattention. I
happened to be awake, and have held your post for you.
You will be more careful another time." It was such
stories as these that his soldiers delighted to tell one
another about him. Many years afterwards some one re-
peated this story to Napoleon, and asked him if it were
true. He said, " No, certainly not ; I was far too tired that
night to do anything of the kind. I should have been
more likely than the sentinel to be asleep." However,
there is no doubt that the story was told of him for many
years ; and it shows the opinion his soldiers had of him.
By the end of the second year Bonaparte had defeated
the enemies he had been sent to fight ia Italy, and a
peace had been made. He himself went back to Paris,
and found the Directors in great trouble and anxiety, for
they had begun to quarrel with each other, and the Govern-
ment did not go on well They soon grew jealous of
General Bonaparte, who was looked upon as a hero by all
426 DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. [CH.
the Parisians. They determined to send him away again,
and gave him the command of an army which was going
to attack Egypt, as part of a great attack which they were
preparing against England.
The army was the same with which he had been fight-
ing in Italy. The men were worn out and tired with all
they had had to do already, and no one but Bonaparte
could have kept them in a good humour, and have pre-
vented them from losing courage among the deserts of
Egypt, where they suffered from heat, thirst, and iUness,
besides being so many hundred miles from their homes,
and in a place ao imlLke any they had ever seen before.
However, they fought and gained a great battle against the
«
Turks and Arabs, who were the soldiers of the country, and
who were some of the best and fiercest horsemen in the
world ; it was called the Battle of the Pyramids. After
this battle Bonaparte was called in the country Sultan
Kebir, or King of Fire, in memory of what the Turks
suffered from his muskets.
But while this went on inland, the English admiral.
Nelson, brought a large fleet of ships to the coast of Egypt,
and fought a battle against the French fleet in the Bay of
Aboukir. The battle was a very fierce one ; it lasted for
twenty hours, and went on through the whole night in spite
of the darkness, though each ship could only just see the
ship against which for the moment it was fighting. A
great French ship called L'Orient was blown up just at
midnight. The tremendous noise of the explosion was
heard all through both fleets, and was so awful that for a
few minutes the battle stopped entirely, and no gun was
fired ; then it went on again as before, till at last the
L.] DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE, 427
French were completely beaten, and had only two ships
left.
Still Bonaparte kept up his own and his soldiera*
courage. He stayed in I^ypt about a year, fought several
battles, and besieged several towns, some of which he took.
He conquered a good part of the country, and was then
obliged to go back to France, where important events were
happening, and to leave the army in Egypt to the care of
one of his generals.
When he arrived in Paris he found that the Directors
had brought themselves into such difficulties that it was
impossible for them to carry on the Grovernment. All the
soldiers in Paris were his friends, and many of the chief
men were willing to try and change the Government, and
give the power, for a time at all events, to him. Bonaparte
had two of the Directors for his friends ; he was first made
commander-in-chief of all the troops about Paris, and soon
after the Directors gave up their power, and it was settled
that there should be three men named Consuls, after the old
Eoman consuls, who should carry on the Government, and
of whomBonaparte should be the chief, and should be called
First Consul His power was to last for ten years, after
which other consuls were to be chosen.
From this time Bonaparte, who now began to be called
Napoleon, grew stronger and stronger every day. He
behaved already very much as if he were King of France ;
and the people who, ten years before, had risen up in rebel-
lion against Louis XVI., and had resolved to have no more
kings in France, were now tired out with aU the horrors
they had brought upon themselves in their struggle, and
were willing to submit to the only man who seemed strong
428 DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. [CH.
enough to keep the country in order. The soldiers, too,
who would have obeyed no one else, always obeyed him.
France was still at war with England, Austria, and
Italy. Napoleon left the other consuls to take care of affairs
in France, and went himself with an army over the Alps
to Italy, sending another army to Germany. His crossing
the Alps was a wonderftd feat, which took all his enemies
by surprise, as it had been supposed that at that time of
year it was impossible. The passes were slippery with ice
and snow, so that it was hard enough for the men of the
army to get over themselves, even if they had not had to
take their arms, luggage, and food with them. The heavy
cannon were especially difficult to manage; but all the
difficulties were overcome at last, and the First Consul and
his soldiers marched down into the plains of Italy. Here
Napoleon gained one of his most famous victories at the
battle of Marengo ; and a few months afterwards his general
in Germany won another great battle at Hohenlinden, which
is known from CampbeU's poem—
" On Linden, when the sun was low," etc.
After these two defeats of Marengo and Hohenlinden,
the Germans agreed to make peace, and a treaty was signed
at a town called Luneville, by which all the country between
the old boundary of France and the Ehine was declared to
belong to France.
When NaJ)oleon went back to Paris he found most of
the people his warm friends and admirers ; but he stiU had
enemies, both among the Boyalists and the Jacobins. The
Eoyalists went so far as to make a plot to murder him,
which very nearly succeeded. They filled a cart with gun-
L.] DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE, 429
powder and shot, put it in a street through which Napoleon
was to drive one evening to the opera, and when they saw
his carriage near put a lighted match into the cart and left
it to explode as he passed. Fortunately, his coachman was
tipsy, and drove faster than usual, and the explosion did not
happen till half a minute after the carriage had passed.
Twenty people were killed, several wounded, and windows
broken on both sides of the street. Napoleon persisted in
going on to the theatre, where he appeared looking as calm
as usual ; and the people, having heard of what had hap-
pened, received him with loud cheers, and every sign of
joy at his escape.
The war stiU went on with England, though the peace
of Luneville had put an end to it as far as Austria and
Italy were concerned. Some of the northern countries, in
particular Denmark, joined in a league to help Napoleon
against England. The English, under Lord Nelson,
attacked the Danish fleet at Copenhagen, and entirely
defeated them in a battle known as the Battle of the
Baltic. Soon after this battle a peace was signed at
Amiens between England and France. There were great
rejoicings at this event in both countries ; and now, at last,
there was peace all over Europe.
Napoleon now turned his thoughts to many matters
which had to be settled in France. He restored many of
the old customs which had been overthrown by the Eevo-
lution. The expressions Sir, Madam, Mr., and Mrs., which
had been given up by the Jacobins, began to be used as
before. Citizen and citizeness were left off. Napoleon
also made friends with the Pope, and brought back the
Roman Catholic religion into France. The churches were
430 DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. [CH.
opened, the priests were recalled or new ones chosen, and
Sundays were observed again. Napoleon also set up
schools, and took great pains to make a new code of laws,
to make roads and public buildings, and to improve the
country in every way. At the same time his ambition
began to show itself more and more. He had done so
much that he imagined he could do everything, and was
always interfering in the afifairs of other countries, and
trying to win fresh glory and honour for himself.
At this time he and the other consuls governed with
the help of three bodies of men who were supposed to give
them advice, and to have some control over the affairs of
the country, but there was really scarcely any one in
France who dared to resist Napoleon in anything. Soon
after the peace of Amiens it was decided that he should
become consul for life, and it was afterwards decided that
he should have leave to choose himself an heir to succeed
him when he died, as it did not seem likely that his wife
Josephine, whom he had married many years before, would
ever have any children.
Unhappily, peace only lasted for one year. Napoleon
was gaining jfresh power in one country after another. He
had now interfered in the affairs of Switzerland, and the
EngUsh, who saw him growing stronger and stronger, were
ajfraid that soon aU Europe would be in danger from him.
They refused to give up to him the island of Malta, which
had been promised to him by the treaty, and thus the war
began again. As soon as war was declared, the English
seized a great number of French ships which happened to
be in English harbours. Napoleon, in return, took prisoners
all the English travellers he could find in France, of whom
L.] DIRECTOR V AND CONSULA TE. 4311
/
there were as many as ten thousand, for there had been
no idea that the peace would end so soon, and every one
wished to go and see the country where there had been
war for so many years, and where no Englishman could
have travelled before since the Eevolution. All these
innocent people were thrown into prison, and some of them
were kept there for many years before the French Govern-
ment could be persuaded to let them go.
Napoleon then made a scheme for attacking the English
in their own country. He collected together a great nimi-
ber of boats at Boulogne, opposite Folkestone, where the
straits between England and France are so narrow that it
is possible to pass from one side to the other in a few hours.
He also collected a large army of soldiers, and made every
possible arrangement for their being taken across to Eng-
land and marching upon London. His difficulty was to
escape the English ships, which would try to prevent his
crossing. Many people would not believe that Napoleon
really thought of invading England ; still, the English sent
Lord Nelson to watch carefully over all that was done by
the French ships, and the young men of England became
volunteers, and learned to march and shoot and perform
all the duties of soldiers, so as to be able to help the regu-
lar army if there was need for it.
However, Napoleon had other matters to think of
besides invading England. The old friends of the Eoyalists,
who had been living in England, and had always been
more or less plotting against him, made a more serious
plot than usual, and some of them went to France and
made friends with some others of Napoleon's enemies, who
hated him because they were Eepublicans, and wished for
^^■'C
432- DIRECTORY AND CONSV^jl^j^-pj^ ^^y; [a
that form of government. A plan was maa-^g chosen and*»i
the First Consul, but he found it out, seiz^^g^ g^^ ™ '(^
Cadondal, the chief Eoyalist plotter, and had him tix^ ^f jg^^g %
several of his friends, and put to death. It was ver^w^ ^^ J
cult to catch Cadondal, for he was specially clever akjtion ^
kinds of disguises, and the story of his adventures is\ gQ \
very interesting one. \q^
After his capture, Napoleon committed what is perhapsVj
the worst and most cruel action of his life. A young \
prince living in Germany, called the Duke d'Enghien, was .
the friend of the Bourbons, the brothers of Louis XVI. . '
He was living quietly out of France, and there was no
reason for thinking that he had been in any way concerned
in the plot But some of the prisoners had spoken of a
stranger whose name they did not know, and who used to
come and join in their plots against the First Consul ; and
Napoleon thought, or pretended to think, that this might
have been the Duke d'Enghien, and, glad of some excuse to
show his strength and be revenged on an enemy, he had
the duke suddenly carried off from his home in Germany, j
brought to Paris, tried in the middle of the nighty and, i
without any just reason, declared guilty of treason, and l
instantly put to death. He was taken out into a court- i
yard and shot by the soldiers, scarcely knowing of what
he was accused. This cruel and wicked act of Napoleon's
made him enemies all over Europe.
Soon after this the people were persuaded to ask
, Napoleon to become Emperor of France instead of First
Consul. He, who had first proposed the idea, of course at
once agreed to it, and the Pope was persuaded to come to
Paris and crown him solemnly at N6tre Dame. His wife
".I
^
^
n , DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. 433
theiev ,^sephine was Empress, and he was to be succeeded on
jjjjM . .he throne by some member of his family. Thus France
^^^came back to the same kind of Government that it had
^f had before the Eevolution, only with Napoleon on the
jjj^ throne instead of Louis XVI. Napoleon's reign, as it
jj must now be called, will be finished in another chapter.
2 P
434 THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. [CH
CHAPTEE LI.
The Emperor Napoleon (1804-1815.).
Napoleon was crowned Emperor in December of the year
1804, and early in the year he left Paris to march against
his enemies. He was obliged to give up his plan of sail-
iQg agaiQst England. In spite of all the pains he took to
entice away the English fleet that was guarding the
Channel, and to bring up his own ships there to watch
over the passing of his soldiers, Lord Nelson was too quick
for him, and followed the French about so closely that he
could not be taken by surprise. At the same' time the
Eussians and Swedes joined with the English against
Napoleon, and Austria was persuaded to do the same.
Napoleon marched first against Austria, and fought
another of his greatest battles, the battle of Austerlitz,
which is as famous as the battle of Marengo. The
Austrians and Bussians had joined their armies, and the
two emperors, Alexander of Bussia and Francis of Austria,
were both present at the battle. The Austrians and
Bussians were entirely beaten; the French took twenty
thousand prisoners, and all the Bussian standards or flags.
The French soldiers called this the Battle of the Emperors,
because the three emperors of Austria, Bussia, and France,
had all taken part in it. The battle had been fought on a
.^ " \ .5.
LI.] THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON, 435
very beautiful day, and the " sun of Austerlitz " became
a conunon expresL with the soldiers. .
The Austrians at once made a treaty with Napoleon,
who, even before the battle of Austerlitz, had made him-
self master of Vienna, the capital of Austria, so that there
was no hope of resisting him. The Emperor Francis had
to give up a good deal of land, which Napoleon either kept
or gave to his friends. The Emperor of Eussia led his
troops back to his own country, and stiU went on with
the war.
At just the same time as the battle of Austerlitz
another battle was fought, which had a very different
result. Lord Nelson met the French fleet in Trafalgar
Bay, and forced them to fight him. Every one knows the
story of the battle of Trafalgar ; how Lord Nelson gave the
signal, " England expects every man to do his duty; " how
he attacked the fleets of France and Spain together and
destroyed them completely ; how in the beginning of the
battle a shot from the topmast of a French ship struck
him in the breast, wounding him, so that he was carried
to his cabin, and died a few hours afterwards, living just
long enough to know that a complete victory was won.
Napoleon heard of this just before the battle of Austerlitz,
and was furious with the French admiral, who had been
beaten at Trafalgar. He seemed to think that if he him-
self had been with the fleet he could have beaten Lord
Nelson, However, he took his revenge, as we have seen,
at the battle of Austerlitz.
The next year the King of Prussia declared war against
France, and Napoleon fought another of his great battles
at a place called Jena, where the Prussians were beaten
436 THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON, [CH.
as completely as the Austrians had been at Austerlitz.
Napoleon marched to Berlin, and treated the Prussians not
only with great harshness and cruelty, but with great
meanness, in robbing them of pictures, statues, and works
of art, which they had at Berlin, and all of which he sent
to Paris. It was his habit to do this in aU the countries
he conquered, and he made himself many enemies by this
ungenerous treatment. He took away the sword of
Frederick the Great, the greatest King of Prussia, ofif his
funeral monument, and to the end of his life he had
Frederick's sUver watch hanging m his room.
After the battle of Jena Napoleon still had to conquer
the Eussians, and he found more difBlculty with them
than with the Austrians and Prussians. However, the next
spring he fought the battle of Friedland, after which,
though it seemed on the whole to be a drawn battle, the
Eussians were anxious to make peace, and a treaty was
soon made between the Emperors of France and Eussia,
who met on a raft in the middle of a river near a town
called Tilsit. By the treaty of Tilsit peace was made
between France and Prussia as well as between France and
Eussia, so Napoleon had now no more to fear from the
east of Europe, and could turn his attention to England.
The English, however, were at that time taken up with
fighting the Dutch, and Napoleon had a short time of
quiet, which he spent in arranging the Government of
France in every particular. He had a great wish to see
and understand everything for himself, and his ministers
worked well and actively, never knowing when he might
come to examine their work, and being sure that he would
discover anything that was going wrong.
LI.] THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. 437
However, it seemed impossible for In'm to satisfy him-
self with governing the country to which he really had a
right, though to do that well would have been work hard
enough for any man, however wise and diligent. He soon
began to mix himself up with the affairs of yet another
country. This was Spain, where there were constant
quarrels and disputes between several people, who all
wished to govern for the king, a weak, foolish old man,
who could keep no order. The king's son asked Napoleon
for help. The story of all that happened is too long to
tell here, but Napoleon managed so well for himself that
at last the king, the queen, the heir-apparent, and the
chief minister of Spain, were all prisoners in a French
town, and Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was
declared the new King of Spain.
The Spaniards resisted Joseph, and the English came
to help them. There were many battles all over Spain,
and the war went on for a long time, while Napoleon was
away in Germany attending to his other affairs. It was
in this war in Spain, which is cdled the Peninsular War,
that the English general. Sir Arthur Wellesley, began
to make himself famous. He won several battles, and
was made Lord Wellington, and afterwards became Duke
of Wellington, and Napoleon's worst enemy.
Napoleon had a short war with Austria, in which he won
the battle of Wagram, and took Vienna a second time.
He made a peace with Austria, at which some of his
enemies were surprised, wondering how the Emperor of
Austria had escaped with such easy conditions, but this
was explained afterwards when it was announced that
Napoleon was going to send away his first wife Josephine,
488 THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON, [CH.
who had never had any children since she married him,
and who seemed as if she never would have any, and to
marry instead a daughter of the Emperor Francis, a
princess named Maria Louisa. This he did, poor Josephine,
who could not help herself, agreeing to do as he wished,
and the next year Maria Louisa had a little son, who was
declared King of Eome as soon as he was bom, and who
was to be Emperor when his father died.
At this point Napoleon's good fortune ended. He had
not used it in a way which would be likely to make it last
long, and now his misfortunes began. The year after his
son was bom, he again went to war with Bussia. He
hoped to be able to march to the capital, St. Petersburg,
as he had before marched to Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid,
and not to have to fight more than perhaps one great
battle, but he was disappointed. The Russians had a
new plan of resisting him, and as soon as he came into
their country with his huge army they began to retreat
before him. But as tl^y went they destroyed aU the
trees, com, and whatever could be used for food that they
passed. Napoleon found only a desert, and had nothing to
give his soldiers. He caUed this a barbarous way of
making war, and settled to change his plan, and march
not to St. Petersburg but to Moscow, the old capital of
Bussia.
As he went along he every now and then saw the
Russian troops, but they never stopped to fight him or
resist him in any way till they came almost within sight
of Moscow, and then the Russian soldiers refused to retreat
any more, and their Emperor was obliged to let them wait
and give battle to the French at a place called Borodino.
LI.] THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. 439
I
The battle was a very fierce one. It began at four o'clock
in the morning and lasted the whole day. Great numbers
were killed on both sides, but after all, neither side could
be said to be the conqueror. The next morning the
Eussians retreated again, going on with the plan they had
already begun, and the French followed them till at last
Napoleon was within sight of Moscow.
X( It was a beautiful city, full of steeples and domes, with
Tlie towers of the Kremlin, or palace of the Emperor of
Eussia, rising over all the rest. When Napoleon saw^ it
from the top of a hill overlooking it, he stopped his horse
and said : " Behold at last that celebrated city." Then he
added to himself " It was time." The army waited for a
time to see if any one would come to them out of the
city, but when no one did they went in, and to their sur-
prise found it quite empty. The Eussians had left it and
were gone away.
The French established themselves in the houses, and
the Emperor lodged in the Kremlin, but at night a fire
broke out The wind happened to change, and at once
another fire broke out in the quarter from which the wind
then blew, and afterwards others, showing that the fires^
were not the work of chance. They were put out with
some difficulty, but next night the same was done again,
and this went on till four-fifths of the city were destroyed,
and at last the Kremlin itself was partly burned. The
Eussians had left a few citizens hidden in the cellars of
Moscow to light the fires, and in this way had given up
their capital sooner than allow the French to become
masters of it.
Napoleon was at last obliged to retreat, and led his
440 THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON, [CH.
army back through Bussia. But it was the middle of
winter ; the supplies that were to have Come fix)m Paris
had not been able to pass along the road, the Bussians had
made the whole way a desert, and the French soldiers
were without food. They died by thousands, of cold,
hunger, and misery. Sometimes the Cossacks, or Eussian
soldiers, attacked them, and killed any one who stayed
behind or strayed from the ranks. At night they were
often so benumbed by the cold that they sat almost in the
fires that were lighted in the camp, till their clothes were
burnt without their knowing it, and when the fire went
out, they died of cold. There was one terrible battle when
the French were attacked as they were crossing the river
Beresina, which was only partly frozen, and in which many
thousand men were drowned.
At last, Napoleon determined to leave the army to its
fate, and to go back himself to Paris. He knew that he was
wanted there, and he does not seem to have felt it his duty
to stay with his soldiers. He disguised himself and set
ofif in a sledge with only three attendants. He arrived
safely in Poland, in Saxony, and at last at Paris. The
army followed as best it could, but only about a twentieth
part of the men who had left France at the beginning of
the war came back there afterwards. Besides the men who
had been killed, nearly a thousand pieces of cannon were
lost, and a number of standards and eagles taken by the
Bussians. The eagle, which had been the sign of the old
Boman Emperors, was used in the same way by the
French Bepublic, and was on all Napoleon's flags.
Napoleon began at once to do what he could to repair his
misfortune. He called out all the young men in France
LL] THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. 441
to come and serve as soldiers. These young soldiers were
called conscripts. With them Napoleon was able to fill up
his anny again, though of course they were untrained and
were not of so much use in fighting as his old soldiers who
had died in Bussia.
Prussia now joined Russia ; and an army from Sweden
marched against France ; also the Duke of Wellington, who
had been fighting successfully in Spain, brought an army
up from the south against the Emperor; but Napoleon
would not give in or try to make peace with his enemies,
which he easily might have done. , A great battle was
fought in Germany, at a place named Bautzen, which
lasted for two days. The Allies then retired, with Napo-
leon following them; but this could hardly be called a
victory for the French, as nothing was gained by it.
Soon afterwards Austria joined the Allies, and Napo-
leon now had almost all the countries of Europe joined
together against him. He might still have made peace
with them aU if he would have given up forcing a king
upon the Spaniards, and could have been satisfied to stay
quietly in France ; but he could not make up his mind to
this.
The great battle of the war was fought in Germany, at
Leipzig ; it lasted for four days, and was one of the sternest
and fiercest battles ever fought. The people of the town
of Leipzig were able to watch it from their steeples. At
last Napoleon retreated. His troops marched through
Leipzig, where was the King of Saxony, his friend. They
retreated with great difBlculty, as they had only one bridge
on which to cross a river outside the town. Great numbers
of them were unable to cross, and gave themselves up to
442 THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON, [CH.
the Allies. Napoleon led back the rest of his army into
Prance.
A few weeks after this the Allies also were in France,
and near Paris. Napoleon fought them again and again.
His sudden marches, his attacks when he was least ex-
pected, were as wonderful as any he had ever made before :
Ld he stm refused the offers of peace which the AlUes
made him. He said good-bye to his wife and child before
he left Paris, and gave them into the charge of the National
Guard, or soldiers of Paris, who were all devoted to him.
He never saw them again.
At last, after much marching backwards and forwards,
the Allies found themselves between Napoleon's army and
Paris. They at once marched towards Paris, leaving the
Emperor behind them, and began an attack by throwing
shells against some of the houses. The people were soon
frightened ; the few soldiers in the town found that it was
of no use to resist. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother,
who was commanding, left the city. Maria Louisa and
her son were also taken away. Then Paris gave itself up
to the allied armies. Napoleon hardly heard that it was
in danger before it had surrendered, and the Emperor of
Bussia and King of Prussia had gone into the town to-
gether, and been welcomed with loud cheers by the people.
Napoleon came back as soon as possible, but found it
impossible to get into Paris. He was obliged to stop at
Fontainebleau, about forty miles away, and there, after a
few days, finding everything against him, and even his
friends deserting him, he resolved to resign the crown.
He consulted with his marshals, or chief officers, and then
wrote a declaration, saying that he would descend from
LI.] THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. 443
the throne and leave it to his son, with his wife for Segent ;
but his enemies took no notice of this, and declared the
brother of Louis XVI. king, under the name of Louis
XVIIL
A few days after this Napoleon had his old soldiers of
the Guard drawn up in the court of the castle of Fontaine-
bleau, and came out to say a last good-bye to them. He
made them a speech, telling them how all Europe had
joined against him, how France had deserted him, and how
he was about to leave the French to the king they had
chosen. He then said, " Be faithful to the new sovereign
whom your country has chosen. Do not lament my fate ;
I shall be happy while I know that you are so." He
called for the flag with the eagle on it, kissed it, and said
his last farewells. Then, while many of the soldiers burst
into tears, he got into his carriage, and drove away from
Fontainebleau.
It had been settled that he should go to live at Elba,
an island in the Mediterranean Sea, and that he should
stay there as a sort of prisoner, doing whatever he liked
in the island, but never able to leave it. Meanwhile,
Louis XVIIL began to reign as King of France. But after
a few months Napoleon grew tired of Elba; he was so
near to France that he could hear about everything that
went on there, and he was told that the French did not
like Louis XVIIL, and that many of them would be glad
to have him back to rule over them again. The next
spring he left Elba secretly, and sailed to France.
He at once marched towards Paris. The people wel-
comed him back as he passed ; the soldiers that were sent
against him put on the tricolor ribbon, and marched with
444 THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON, [CH.
his army as soon as they saw him. His own old officers,
who had been put at the head of the annies by King
Louis, could not bring themselves to fight against him, and
many of them who had deserted Napoleon for Louis before,
now deserted Lotiis for Napoleon.. At last Louis fled from
Paris, and Napoleon arrived there, went to the Tuileries,
set up his court again, and found most of the people in the
town delighted to welcome him back.
But this did not last long ; the Allies soon joined to-
gether again to help Louis. The Austrians, the Prussians,
the Eussians, the English, joined their armies, and Napoleon
was obliged to march against them at once. His soldiers
were proud to be under him once more, and went to battle
feeling as sure of victory as ever. They met the English
and German armies in Belgium. The English were com-
manded by the Duke of Wellington, the Prussians by
Marshal Blucher. The battle of Waterloo was fought on
the 18th of Jime 1815, and there the French army, after
fighting bravely for a whole day, was entirely beaten, and
even Napoleon's Old Guard, who had never been resisted
before, were beaten back and almost destroyed by the
EngUsh. In the evening, seeing that everything was lost.
Napoleon left the army, rode to Paris, and finding every one
there turning against him, he resigned his crown for the
second time a few days afterwards.
He then left France, went on board an English ship,
and asked to be taken to England. This was done, and
after some discussion as to what should be done with him,
he was sent to St. Helena, an island in the Atlantic off
the coast of Africa, which is about as large as the town
of Paris.
LI.] THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. 445
He was to live here as a prisoner, closely watched by
an English governor and a body of soldiers, with four of
his own friends, whom he was allowed to choose for him-
self, to keep him company ; and here Napoleon passed the
rest of his life.
He made many complaints of the way in which he had
been treated by the English, but he was far too dangerous
a man ever to have been allowed to come back to Europe
again, and after his having escaped from Elba, they were
obliged to keep a strict watch over what he did. It was a
sad ending to the life of such a man. Five years after he
reached St. Helena, he died. He was buried under a
willow-tree in the island, and some years afterwards his
body was taken to France, and buried at Paris with great
pomp.
This is the history of Napoleon Bonaparte. Few men
have had so remarkable a life. He was not a good man,
but it is impossible to say that he was not a great one.
He was one of the best soldiers that have ever been known,
and hkd so good an understanding, that he seemed able to
do everything welL But he was selfish, cruel, and am-
bitious, and carried away by the idea of his own greatness,
and these faults led him to throw away the great oppor-
tunity he had of being of use to his country, and leaving a
glorious name behind him.
446 CONCLUSION,
CONCLUSION.
(1815-1880.)
Napoleon's death happened only sixty years ago, within
the memory of our grandparents, and what has happened
since in France is so near our own times, that I think there
is no need to say more than a few words about it. Many
of the people now alive remember it all, and there have as
yet been scarcely any books written about it, so I wiU
make my account of it very short, and I hope all my
readers will live to read longer and better accounts of it
hereafter.
When Napoleon was sent away to St. Helena, Louis
XVIIL was, as I have said before, brought back into Paris
by the Allies, and set up there as king as he had been be-
fore. He was called Louis XVIIL; not Louis XVII., be-
cause it was considered by the Boyalists that Louis XVI.
had gone on being king to the end of his life, and that his
little son Louis became king at his death, just as would
have happened if Louis had died a natural death. Little
Louis was called Louis XVII. by them while he lived, and
spoken of by that name after he was dead, so that the next
king had to be called Louis XVIIL
He had learned that it was necessary to yield in some
degree to the wishes of the people. He gave them a
charter or agreement to govern in a particular way, by
CONCLUSION. 447
which he promised them many of the rights for which
they had asked at the beginning of the Eevolution, the
right of believing what they liked, of publishing what
books they liked, and others of the same kind. After this,
he ruled quietly for nine years, when he died, and was
buried with all the ceremonies that were usual in old times
at the funerals of the kings of France.
His brother succeeded him, and was called Charles X.
This is the third instance of three brothers succeeding one
another on the throne in French history, and each time
there have been no more of the same family after them.
It happened when the family of Capet ended with the
three sons of Philip le Bel, in the fourteenth century;
when the Valois ended with the three sons of Henry II.,
in the sixteenth ; and now again with the Bourbons the
grandsons of Louis XV., in the nineteenth. Charles did
not succeed so well as Louis had done. He made himseK
disliked by being entirely under the control of the priests,
and doing whatever they wished.
The king and his ministers quarrelled with the Cham-
bers who had been appointed to help him govern. After
he had reigned for six years the quarrel came to a point.
Charles published five decrees or acts, taking away some of
the rights that had been promised to his subjects by the
charter. At this the people were so angry that they rose
up in a rebellion, and made barricades in the street as they
used to do in old times. The king would not yield to
them, because, as he said, "yielding had brought his
brother to the scaffold," but at last he agreed to change
his ministers, and choose some who would be pleasing to
the people.
448 CONCLUSION,
Hut whon ho found that this was not enough to satisfy
hin Bubjootfl, he gave up the crown. He wished his grand-
non to succeed him, and to be called Henry Y., but the
people would not hear of this, and offered the crown to his
cousin, the Duke of Orleans. Then Charles X. left France
altoKother. He went to England and lived there for some
time as a private gentleman, and afterwards went to
Austria, where he died. His grandson, the Count of Cham-
bord, is alive now, and it has often been proposed that he
should be made King of France, but he has refused the
crown, and there is no prospect of the French being
govothod again by any of Louis XV.'s descendants.
The cousin of Charles X., who had been Duke of
Orleans, was known as king by the name of Louis-Philippe.
Ho was ciUled king not of France but of the French, to
show that ho had been chosen by the French people, and
was not king either because of his birth, or from having
takon Uie crown by force, which had been till then the
only ways by which a man could become King of France.
Ho reigned for eighteen j-ears,
TlK\n> were some troubles during his reign, both in and
out of Fmnoe« In France there were risings np against
Uio go>*orument, and one year a terrible iUness, called
oholom> of wluoli moi>^ than a million people died. Out of
Fruuv there wore wars in diflterent countries in which the
Fit>noh king was concerned. There were two or three
attonipts made to murder Louis -Philippe, bnt he was
novx>r hurt ; and, on tlie whole, the people seemed satisfied
with his nile.
In his i^ign the boneis of Napoleon were brought fiom
$t Helena to Pisuis. and solemnly boiied in a fine Ixiilding,
CONCLUSION. 449
called the Hotel des Invalides, on the shores of the Seine.
Just at the same time a nephew of Napoleon, the son of
his brother Louis and his step-daughter Hortense, whose
name was Louis Napoleon, came secretly to France, and
tried to stir up the army to revolt against the Grovemment.
He was taken prisoner, and shut up in a castle, from which
he escaped a few years afterwards in the dress of a working
man. It was not long before he was able to go back to
France in triumph.
The people grew discontented with the king. They
held meetings, and set up barricades in the streets. The
king then gave up the crown, as Charles X. had done
before him, and left Paris with the queen and his children.
The mob had taken away the royal carriages, and they had
to drive out of Paris in cabs.
After this it was resolved that there should be a
republic, as there had been after the great Eevolution,
with a president for chief, and two councils, called the
Senate and the Assembly, to help him govern. All over
France deputies were chosen to make up the Assembly.
Louis Napoleon was one of them. A little later he was
chosen President of the KepubUc for four years, and before
the end of that time he had managed to prepare everything
for having himself declared Emperor, as his uncle had been
before him.
The army was on his side, and no one made much
resistance when Napoleon declared that the Assembly was
at an end, arrested his principal enemies, and filled Paris
with troops. He now governed by himself for about a
year, and then the crown for which he so much wished
was offered to him by the people, and he was crowned
2g
450 CONCLUSION.
Emperor at the Palace of St. Cloud, and took the name of
Napoleon III. Napoleon II. was the son of Napoleon L,
who died when he was about nineteen, and had always
lived with his mother in Germany, and had never really
governed any one.
Napoleon III. was emperor for eighteen years. He
was a great friend of our Queen Victoria, and helped the
English in the Crimean War against Eussia in the year
1855; but he was not successful in his different under-
takings, and he soon left off being popular in France. In
the year 1870 he went to war with Germany, thinking he
was certain of success, and wanting to turn away his sub-
jects' attention from his government in France; but he
found his enemies stronger than he expected. His armies
were driven back, the Germans marched into France with-
out his being able to stop them, and at last a battle was
fought at Sedan, after which Napoleon gave up himself
Mid his anny as prisoners to the King of Prussia.
The French, who had long been tired of the Emperor,
now turned against him. He was declared to be deposed
from the throne, and France for the third time became a
republic. Napoleon went away to England with his wife
and son, and lived there for about two years, when he died.
His only son was killed fighting with the English army in
Africa when he was twenty-three years old.
Meanwhile the Germans took several towns in France,
defeated aU the French armies, besieged Paris for four
months and took it, made a peace called the Peace of
Frankfort, by which the province of Alsace and part of
Lorraine were given up to them, and went back again to
Germany, all in less than a year horn the time when the
CONCLUSION. 461
war began. France has ever since been a republic, with
one president after another to be at the head of affairs.
Whether this form of government will last, or some other
change be made in the course of time, it is impossible
to say.
I have now given you some account of the history of
France from the time of Julius Csesar to that at which I
write, and I hope that all my readers will feel inclined to
learn more about it when they grow older. For, if people
care at all for history — that is, for knowing what has been
happening to the people who lived in the world before
they were bom — they ought to care about the history of a
nation with which their own country has had so much to
do, and which has been concerned with so many of the
important events happening in aU the other countries of
Europe.
• The French are our nearest neighbours on the Con-
tinent, and are, besides, one of the greatest and most
important nations in the world. Their history is full of
interesting and amusing events, of which I have been
obliged to leave the greater part untold, because there was
not space in this book to hold them.
And now, being come to the end of aU I had to say, I
will wish all my readers who have managed to come so far
as the journey's end with me a friendly
EAREWELL. ^^^ ^
Printed by ^ &. ^ Clark, Edinburgh,
' \
THE NEW YORK PUBUC LIBRARY
REFBRBNGE DEPARTMENT
is book is under no oiroumstAnoea to be
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